Eric and the Witches of Shreveport
by merick
Summary: Eric has had his own run ins with the Witches of Louisiana, but what happens when he tries to put his own memories back together and they go after his only source of information? One pissed off Vampire methinks. M for adult scenes and language.
1. Chapter 1

EJL, you know who you are, put this thought in my head and now that I've wrapped up all my other FanFic stories I have time to play with it.

Firstly, the disclaimer, I own nothing related to the Southern Vampire Series (cause I would have spelled it Vampyre), True Blood: HBO or comics, or any of these characters except the tale I am dropping them into.

Those of you who have read the books will recognize what episode Eric is talking about below, if you don't please pick up the books, give CH her royalties for crafting an awesome plotline. The reason I use it? I have a sneaking suspicion that we are going to see all or part of it in the next season of True Blood. Let's see if I'm right.

Please enjoy, and send your reviews.

Merick

I hate witches: let me perfectly clear about that. I hate fucking witches. There are better epithets I could use here, but they don't translate so well. My father had used them frequently and they mostly involved sons of unwed mothers whose fathers were demons, or sometimes horses as I recall, either way I think you get the idea. I really hate witches.

Bad enough they don't play fair when they negotiate; booby-trapping someone with a curse? Reasonable people don't need to do things like that. Of course, reasonable people actually negotiate; they don't just come into your Area with a list of demands plucked out their own fantasies. That was how I first met the witches of Louisiana; an experience I would like to say I could forget, but sadly, I hardly remember any of it at all. Not knowing what I was up to, hell, even who I was for so many weeks makes me angry. Pam's told me a bit about what she knows of what happened, and I did get back my memories of myself before the damned curse, but there is still a blank space of time in my head.

Sookie knows what happened. She's the one who found me, running mostly naked down some country road, completely unaware of who or where I was. She kept me safe at her place, with Pam's approval, and something happened between us; some kind of intimacy that she won't talk about. I don't know if we had sex, or if I turned into some kind of blithering idiot around her; I'm hoping for the former because my ego couldn't take the latter. I intended to get the truth out of her eventually; because I know I'm not going to be able to let it go, but before that could happen the godless, bastard witches stepped in to ruin everything for me again. Well, they messed up Sookie too, which pisses me off. They really had no idea who they were screwing around with in Eric Northman. But they would soon find out.

Let me get to the story here. It was a regular night, things humming along at Fangtasia. Yes, I was still brooding over the aforementioned 'lost time' in my head, but I was getting a plan together to get the information out of Sookie. Eventually she was going to ask me for another favor, it was inevitable given her track record, I knew it was my bargaining chip, so I wasn't letting it eat away at me completely. I was staring out over the crowd as I usually did, looking every bit the mysterious, dangerous Vampire when Pam came up to my side, touched me gently on the arm and whispered that there was something in the office that required my attention. Being as that wasn't wholly unusual I got up and followed her back there. I should have paid more attention to the way she was wearing her shoulders; tense, and up around her ears but I didn't. As we got to my door, her words gave me the first clue that all was not well.

"Now don't panic Eric." What a ridiculous thing to say; telling someone not to panic simply puts them in the mindset to do just that; not that I generally panic about much of anything, which should also have clued me in that something was really wrong, Pam warning me off it and all. I pushed open the door to see a form, wrapped in a tablecloth, laid on my couch. The scent caught in my throat before my eyes discerned who it was: Sookie.

"What the hell Pam?" I flashed over to her, she was quite unconscious, which likely explained why I hadn't felt her presence, or her fear, assuming she'd felt any before she'd been knocked out.

"Arthur found her sprawled out over the hood of your car." Arthur, I should mention, was our new Bartender, I'd lost count how many we'd had in the past year; they didn't last long around here. I didn't have high hopes for Arthur. I brushed my fingertips over her face, as good as a cool compress I figured, hoping the cold might wake her up. It didn't.

"Why is she wrapped in a tablecloth Pam?"

"Because she was naked when he found her." He matter of fact way of speaking was normally something I appreciated. I suppose I didn't appreciate it so much when she was talking about Sookie. I knew Sookie wouldn't appreciate the fact that Arthur had found her naked, well, that anyone had found her naked, but of more importance than that thought just then, was sorting out what had happened to her.

"He called me as soon as he saw her Eric, I went out to retrieve her." Pam having seen her naked was also not likely to make Sookie happy.

"Has she been injured?"

"I could see no visible wounds on her body."

I couldn't smell any blood on her; and her blood was very sweet. I would have put money on it that if she had been injured in such a manner as to draw it that Arthur would have helped himself before calling anyone. He didn't have the self-control that Pam and I did. I listened closely to her body for a few minutes, hearing her heartbeat, steady and relaxed as if she were asleep, and her breathing was much the same. I leaned in to speak to her, to try to wake her up.

"Sookie?"

Her eyes fluttered and she let out a very soft moan. That was good I thought.

"Sookie?" I asked again. Her eyes opened wider, she looked at Pam and I, then clutched the fabric around her chest and screamed.

I clamped a hand down over her mouth quickly so that no one in the bar would hear her and send the police. Not that we were doing anything wrong, but explaining this to human police would be pretty challenging.

"Sookie, it's all right, you're safe, you're here at Fangtasia with Pam and I." Perhaps Pam's leering rouged lipstick smile over my shoulder wasn't the most comforting thing she needed to see just then, because she continued to try to scream.

"Sookie! It's Eric, you know you're safe here." Her eyes got very wide, but the screaming stopped and so I dropped my hand. She looked at us both, tears pooling in her eyes, lips trembling, skin gone ashen white, which looked very odd against her normal tan.

"Sookie? Do you know who I am?" Reality dawned on me just then. She shook her head without saying a word.

"Do you know who you are?" Again she shook her head.

Goddamned, fucking witches!

**Reviews are love, and I am not above begging. **


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

A few more choice words escaped my lips, this time in my native language, in homage to my father. My tone of voice did nothing to comfort Sookie who shrank back against the couch, watching my angry tirade. I looked back at her, realized that my enthusiasm had frightened her, and shut up for a few seconds. I even avoided putting a hole in the wall with my fist, which I desperately wanted to do. No, not quite the truth, I wanted to put my fist through a witch; but I knew Hallow was dead, and her brother as well, so I didn't have a face or name to tag to my need for vengeance. Yet.

I returned to where Sookie was curled up in a ball, knees drawn to her chest, tucked into the corner of my black leather couch, red tablecloth wrapped around herself. I sat down very slowly, looking at her, trying to keep a non-threatening expression on my face.

"Your name is Sookie Stackhouse. My name is Eric Northman, and this is my associate Pam Swinford deBeauford. You are in Shreveport at my bar, Fangtasia. An employee found you outside, unconscious, on my car." Even as I listened to myself speaking the words I knew how little I was telling her, none of it offering any comfort.

"What happened to me?" Her voice was so tiny and shy, so unlike the Sookie that normally stormed into my bar asking for favors. Even unlike the one that had been avoiding my questions for nearly a month now. I didn't like it, I liked constants in my life, like Pam, I knew how she would react to most anything; like a cold hearted bitch, in a good way, unless it directly involved me. I guess I sort of counted on Sookie to be annoying sometimes, but good hearted, and to have self-confidence, earned the hard way. It ripped at my heart a bit to hear her so frightened, not that I was about to admit it.

"I believe that a witch has cast a spell on you, robbing you of your memories." I found myself wanting to reach out and hold her hand as I told her my suppositions, but I didn't. I wasn't sure she was quite ready for that.

"Why me?" A plaintive little whine came from her lips.

"I can only guess it was to hurt me somehow."

She started to cry again.

"Pam, please go and get Sookie something to wear. Are you hungry Sookie?" I had no idea when she'd been cursed, if it had only been moments before Arthur had found her, or if she'd been held somewhere first for any period of time. I knew that I should call Sam Merlotte and see if he had missed her at work, but my prevailing concern was for her, and why she had been dumped at my bar. Exactly what message was I supposed to be getting?

"I guess I am." She said, pulling me back to her immediate needs.

"I'll get you something while you get dressed. As I recall you like traditional southern cooking, like your Grandmother used to make you."

"Okay." She nodded her head weakly, but I think me offering some kind of information about her made her trust me just a little more. Hey, if I knew about her grandmother, I couldn't be a completely terrible person, could I?

Pam returned with a Tee shirt and a pair of shorts from our little gift shop. We both stepped out to give her some privacy, but I told Pam to stay close to the door, just in case. I had Arthur run down the street to get Sookie some chicken and sweet potato fries. I didn't even think how odd that order must have been at the Smashburgers, coming from a vampire. In the interim I went out to see my car and to see if there was anything else out there that could give me a clue as to who had left her there. There were no scents around it that I didn't recognize, Arthur, Pam, myself, so either the witch hadn't left a trail by means of another spell, or she had been transported there, apparently the same way I had been sent out to Bon Temps. I carefully opened the driver's door; no explosion, then the others, also no explosions, twinkling lights or other noxious witchy things emerged. I started it, with the key fob, mind you, from a few feet away. No problems there either and I felt somewhat secure that no tampering had been done to it. How could you send a message to me, and then kill me before I had a chance to understand it? Nope, the Witches had some kind of plan, of that I was sure.

When I returned to my office Sookie was cautiously eating the chicken Arthur had brought, Pam was still there, still watching her, which looked a little creepy truth be told. Sookie's face seemed to relax just a little as I came in.

"Thank you." She whispered to me.

"You're welcome." She looked a little less pale now, probably the food, and a little less forlorn now dressed in a red Fangtasia babydoll and black shorts. She'd always looked good to me, and now was no different, except for the pity I felt in my chest. Yes, for those of you asking right now, I do have a heart, even if it doesn't beat anymore. I never wanted Sookie to be drawn into any war between my enemies and myself. Not only did I lose respect for adversaries who fought using collateral subjects, it raised my ire, which meant there would be no negotiating. I understood revenge, fair enough, attack me personally then, but leave the innocents by the wayside. I remembered back to my adolescence and early adulthood, raids, battles, we fought with the men; none of us would attack a child or a woman, at least none of us with honor would. We had greater respect from our enemies for doing as we did.

Looking at Sookie I saw so many of those long ago faces. I had to turn away.

"Pam, find out from Sam Merlotte if he's missed Sookie yet. But don't let on that we are concerned, or that we have her. We don't know who we can trust yet." She flipped out her cell phone from her pocket and exited the office.

"Who's Sam Merlotte?"

"He's your boss Sookie."

"And you think he might have done this to me?"

"Honestly, no, but I'm not taking any chances."

She nodded, and had a long drink of her soda. She really did seem to be more relaxed around me. That gave me some comfort.

Pam returned after a few moments, I overheard some of her conversation, but not all. She related that Sookie had apparently called in to ask for a week off the day before, saying that she had some business out of town. Since she'd done this on a number of occasions prior Sam had given it to her without hesitation. Pam had played it well, saying that they had had to change flight reservations and just wanted to let Sookie know, but that she'd try her at home. Pam was quite good at not giving anything away and apparently Sam hadn't sounded concerned. At least Sam's news had given us a place to begin our timeline; yesterday, sometime after noon. So it appeared to me that Sookie had been coerced into making the call, if it had even been her who had done it; witches could change their voices with the right spells, at least thirty six hours earlier, and that meant that she had probably been in the custody of whoever these villains were for that long.

I looked at her and tried to smile. She sort of looked as though she needed that from me.

"I'm going to take you back to my place Sookie. I don't think it's safe just yet to take you home. My house can be much better guarded."

"Have I been to your house before?"

"No you haven't."

"Have you been to mine?"

"Several times. I'm going to send someone out there to check it out and to look for any other clues."

She nodded at me. I pulled my own cell phone out of my pocket and dialed an old friend, Mr. Cataliades. When he answered I explained the situation that had arisen as succinctly as I could, and requested that he send his two nieces, Diantha, and Gladiola to survey Sookie's house and lands for any sign of whatever or whoever might have spelled her. Diantha and Gladiola are semi-demons, as is their uncle. As such, the magics of the witches have little power over them, and they are excellent detectives with senses even keener than my own, especially when it comes to evil acts. I was quite confident that they would come up with something to add to our current meager knowledge. I reassured Sookie that the girls would find us some answers.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own any of these characters. I just like taking them out to play in my yard once in awhile.

Part 3

It didn't take long till we were pulling into the garage at the side of my house. Sookie had been quite willing to leave the club behind; well perhaps it was Pam and Arthur she was happier to leave behind. She seemed wary of them both. Pam, I could understand, she was an imposing woman, even thought she wasn't much bigger than Sookie, but Arthur was a slight man, 'course that made his fangs look a bit more menacing on his gaunt face. But really, besides them he looked as though a stiff breeze might blow him over, even if that wasn't the truth.

I shut off the engine and closed the garage door before opening my door, and then walking around to open Sookie's. I offered her my hand to help her up, not really thinking, but she took it. The warmth of her skin, pressed into my palm was a bit of a shock to me just then, because it brought the hint of some kind of familiarity with it, something not wholly unpleasant. I held it for a moment longer than was necessary even after she had stood, but she didn't pull away.

"Please come in." A formality, I know, but certainly a proper invitation, even though, as a human, she could walk anywhere she liked with or without an invitation. I pushed open the door from the garage into the house and turned on a hallway light so she could see where she was going.

My house was fairly modern, if you counted less than fifty years old modern. I did. It was perhaps not what you would expect for a thousand year old Vampire. I'm sure you are picturing some stone castle, or wooden hunting lodge, no, nothing like that. A split-level modified to my needs with an upper floor that served for entertaining, not that I threw parties or anything, but it had windows and curtains, and all the trappings of a human home, even a kitchen, which I never used, and then the useable space below that.

It was the lower two floors that gave it away as something unique. The first floor, just partially below ground had all the windows sealed with steel shutters, locked form the inside, and soldered into the frames. That level belonged to Pam, I ventured in periodically, at her invitation, she had converted it to a small sitting room, and a large bedroom, with two walk-in closets to hold her clothing and shoes. Even as a human Pam had possessed a love for all the fine things in life, and truly only the names of the designers had changed in the last two hundred years. It was a harmless, if expensive habit of hers. I hadn't ventured further than the sitting room in a very long time.

My rooms were entirely subterranean, not a spare beam of natural light to be had anywhere. As such I had a great many glass shaded lamps and sconces, not that I needed the light to move around with, but because they reminded me of my childhood, and the torches and their brackets along all the walls of my father's house. Out of necessity mine were mostly electric, but I did keep a proper hearth there; which was another reason for the older house, a proper wood-burning fireplace. The codes that had to be met to put one in a newer home weren't worth my time or money.

I led Sookie down the stairs to my left from the garage entrance, swinging shut, and locking a large oak door behind us. She trembled a little bit as I did so and as she looked downwards. I suppose it is a frightening sort of abyss to look into for the first time.

"It isn't a prison or a tomb, I promise Sookie." She plastered a weak little smile onto her face and took a few steps further down.

"You don't sleep in a coffin do you?" She seemed so hesitant to ask, I found it charming, as well as uncomfortable because it only proved how much had been stolen from her.

"I sleep in a bed, just the same as you?"

"You've seen my bed?"

Sadly, I didn't know if I had or hadn't.

"No." Seemed the only honest answer. "I just meant it as a figure of speech."

"Oh." Did she sound just a little disappointed at my answer? No, it was just my mind playing tricks.

I turned on more lights as we came to the bottom of the stairs. They illuminated my living space, large room, the centerpiece of which was the fireplace, and hearth of which I've already spoken. I'd had a huge solid oak mantle installed, from the same wood as the door up the stairs, and on it rested a few trophies; nothing macabre I assure you. A horn girded in bronze, a few pewter drinking steins, a short ax and a long sword, though the sword was mounted on the wall above the fire. In front of the hearth was a skin rug, bear, a mottled brown in color, and beyond that, two wing chairs in ox blood leather, a table between them for drinks, or books, whatever was holding my interest at the time.

Further away from that, a desk, with a computer and printer where I worked from home, and beside that a love seat in front of a flat screen television. I did still keep up with the news of the world and the occasional movie. The History channel was usually good for a laugh, if just to see what slant the producer de jour put on events I had already lived through. I also had a small bar and crystal glasses, hidden away in a wooden chest, not that I drank very much any longer, but the scent of the old bottles of port and scotch pleased me at time. The walls held the aforementioned sconces, and some weaving, art that had reminded me of the rugs of my father's halls, and the works from my mother's hands. They were the only personal touches there. It was enough. More personal things were in my bedroom; I expect I'll get to describe that layout at a later time.

Sookie looked around at everything very timidly, almost rooted to the spot at the foot of the stairs.

"I'll start a fire, come and sit please." Hesitantly she put one foot in front of the other and managed to cross the room, perching on the edge of a wing chair as I knelt at the hearth and piled the wood and kindling, striking a match to set it alight. After assuring myself with the first small pop that the wood had caught I settled myself back into the other chair and looked over at her.

"Would you like something to drink?"

She shook her head.

"Perhaps I should tell you a bit more about yourself?"

"Yes please."

"Your name is Sookie Stackhouse, I'm sorry I don't know exactly how old you are, early twenties I imagine. You live in a small town in Louisiana called Bon Temps; you've lived your whole life there. You work in a bar called Merlotte's as a waitress."

"Sam Merlotte?" She asked quietly.

"He's the owner, your boss, and a friend of yours. The few times I've met him he's seemed like a reasonable man."

"Do I have any family?"

"You have a brother, Jason. He seems to annoy you, or rather; some of his habits seem to annoy you. Apparently he has an eye for the ladies." I smirked, though she hadn't really vented to me about her brother, whenever his name came up it generally involved some kind of trouble he gotten himself into with another woman. She actually laughed a bit as I described him.

"My parents?"

"Have been gone for a long time, your Grandmother raised you. She passed about a year ago, give or take." I hadn't known Sookie quite so well at that point, and I have to admit that the actual date of her Grandmother's murder escaped me, if I had even known it at all. "You live in her house, it's a big house, two floors, very old and full of antiques and mismatched furniture."

"Is it tacky?"

I thought back to the last time I had been in the house, "no, it isn't, it's just like you. You've always seen the value in history and family. I think having all that stuff around gives you a great deal of comfort, I think you probably know every story behind every artifact." She nodded, a little sadly, and finally relaxed back into the chair.

"Or I did."

"You will again. Whatever the essence of the spell I know it can be broken."

"How do you know this?" That was the old Sookie, just a little challenge in her voice. It gave me hope.

"I've had occasion to deal with witches before, and their spells. One tried to curse me not so long ago."

"Why?"

"I would not cave to their demands."

"Who are you Eric?"

"My name is Eric Northman. I am the Vampire Sheriff of Area Five, and the owner of Fangtasia, amongst other properties."

"So you are important?" Her innocence was so charming. I could not help but smile.

"Some might think it."

"But you don't?"

"I have found that it is often easier to be thought of as less important, people tend to bother you less, and it is easier to get one's own work done."

She laughed again. It was wonderful to hear.

My phone rang before she could ask me another question; it was Mr. Cataliades and I took the call. Apparently Diantha and Gladiola were on their way and all three of them would be at the house in a few moments. I told Sookie they were coming, and asked if she wanted to hear what they had to say. The calmer look on her face began to melt at the news that others would be joining us, but I could see her screwing up her innate courage when she nodded in the affirmative.

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	4. Chapter 4

Let's set a bit of plot then shall we?

Part 4

We all sat upstairs, there were still a few hours till sunrise, and the space was more open, I hoped it would be more comfortable for Sookie, as I was about to expose her to three more supes, and I was fairly certain she had no idea that Demons really existed. It wasn't common knowledge, as Vampires were, and as easily as she had taken the news about witches, I had purposely left weres, shifters and Demons out of our brief conversations.

Let me describe the girls, they really did look human, for the most part. Two arms, two legs, all the normal stuff, but just more, 'angular' mostly. They didn't have pointed teeth or ears, but the hint of those things was there if you knew what you were looking at. Their fingers were just a little longer than most, their eyes a little more pinched at the corners, and their bodies taut with muscles. There was nothing really soft and feminine about them, not like Sookie. Their curves were streamlined, their shoulders broad, not that they weren't sexy looking, if you liked that body builder, gymnast sort of look. It wasn't my style, but it certainly had its perks. They were fast on their feet, faster than I. And they were powerful. It took a lot to hurt a demon, even a semi-demon, so they were difficult adversaries; not that I'd ever fought with one.

Their uncle was a slightly different story. He had enough of the same facial features that you could certainly see the relation between them all, but he wasn't as 'sleek' as the girls, having settled into his older years with a bit more weight around his middle and hair that was more salt than pepper; unlike the girls who wore sleek, long black hair. He seemed more relaxed, and as he had a white-collar job as a lawyer, he enjoyed some of the finer things in life. I kept the whiskey around for him. The girls had Coke, and so did Sookie, Diantha found their similar choice amusing and she made a joke about all the ladies in the room. I could see Sookie warming up to her, given time.

"Let the girls tell you what they've uncovered Eric, and then we can discuss what to do from here." Mr. Cataliades tried to reign in the girls' silly laughter, but had minimal success. They loved life, and it was obvious in their expressions and mannerisms. Even their serious words were told with smiles and pride.

"Scents of smoke and strange plants around your house Sookie." Diantha seemed almost unable to keep still as she described the scene. "No people, those scents were very faint, humans, nothing else."

"Witches?" Sookie whispered to me. She had taken a seat beside me on the couch, normally I sat in one of the chairs, but it just seemed like I was supposed to be closer to her just then.

"I imagine." I felt her shaking little hand snake out and wrap itself in mine. Again I had the warm sensation in my chest, I know I smiled just a little for her then as I looked down at my fist, wrapped around hers. It felt good, but I didn't have time to really explore why just then as Diantha continued her story.

"We found ash, in front of all the doors and windows, little lines of it as if it had been poured there. We think it was burned somewhere on the property but we couldn't find traces of it."

"Likely burned in a brazier." Mr. Cataliades offered. I was familiar with the term, and the process. I'd seen healers use them as a boy. A copper or brass pot, though I supposed they could be made out of any non-flammable metal. The herbs or materials to be burned are placed in the bottom, sometimes over charcoal, sometimes set alight on their own. The smoke can be used for scrying, the ash for potions and spells.

Gladiola handed over a small pouch.

"Here is a sample." Her voice was quieter than her sister's, but no less powerful and no less proud. I took the pouch but kept it closed. I wasn't about to take the chance of unleashing something.

"What have you done with the rest of it?" I asked.

The girls smiled at each other, big smiles, full of teeth and I felt Sookie tremble slightly at my side, and draw nearer to me, still clutching my hand.

"We took care of it." They said, almost in unison. I didn't want to ask how they had done that, despite my curiosity.

"And my house?" Sookie asked hesitantly, still a little unsure it seemed about engaging the girls herself.

"All is well there Sookie. It is a very pretty house. No broken doors or windows. Everything still locked. We think it is secure."

She looked up at me. I knew what she was asking.

"I'll check it out myself tomorrow evening, then I can bring you there if you like Sookie." She half smiled at me.

"I'd like to see it, maybe it will spark some kind of memory?"

"Of course." I turned back to Mr. Cataliades, knowing he likely had some plans of his own regarding the matter. It was so nice to have someone like him on retainer. Not only could he move about during the day, to look after my interests, but also he had a network of contacts that could provide very helpful services, a network that might not always response to the requests of a Vampire, even a thousand year old one.

"What do you recommend sir?"

"Well Eric, perhaps having Sookie use her abilities close to her workplace or even around Fangtasia might lead to some clues."

Damn, I had completely forgotten to tell Sookie about her abilities; not that we'd had a tremendous amount of time to talk, alone. The way she looked at me just then expressed her further confusion, and a reliance on me for answers.

"What abilities Eric?"

I sighed, "You're a telepath Sookie. I'm sorry I didn't mention it before. You can't read me, or any Vampire so I never really thought about it."

"You're a telepath?" Diantha practically screamed it, "Oh, what am I thinking of right now?" She looked as though she was going to begin hopping up and down with glee.

Sookie's confused look in my direction continued, those eyes were still wide and pleading. I tried to make it better, but I only made it worse.

"I don't think she'll be able to read you Diantha, she really only has good readings from other humans." It was barely out of my mouth when I realized how stupid I had been.

"What do you mean other humans Eric?" Sookie's voice sounded a little shrill, with a hint of the terror rising in it again. "You aren't human Diantha?"

She grinned her big toothy grin that exposed a mouthful of teeth that definitely changed her countenance to something more akin to her true nature.

"I am part human." Diantha offered, "but mostly demon." She added. "Can you read Weres?" I would have liked to have thrown something at the girl just then, but I restrained myself.

"Weres? As in Werewolves?" Sookie asked in return, shock seemed to be setting in.

"Werewolves and werefoxes and werebears, and shifters, they can turn into lots of things." Diantha practically gleamed with happiness as she spoke.

"Vampires, and witches, and demons, and werewolves, and telepaths? Could this day honestly get any worse?" Sookie almost sounded like herself with her half exasperated half frightened utterance.

"But what am I thinking?" Diantha kept trying to encourage her, and to give her credit Sookie actually stared at the girl and seemed like she was trying to focus. She wrinkled her forehead.

"Steak?" She offered.

"Close, I was thinking about a hamburger, but I like your idea better Sookie. Do you have anything to eat around here Mr. Northman?"

"I'm sorry, I don't."

"Well how exactly is Sookie supposed to eat if she's staying here? She is human you know?"

I didn't appreciate the sarcasm, or the fact that she pointed out yet another thing I'd forgotten about.

"Glad and I are going to run to the store then, we'll get everything you need. Do you want to come Sookie?"

"I think it would be best if she stayed here girls, we don't know yet who has tried to harm her." I spoke for Sookie, hoping that I hadn't offended her by doing so.

"We wouldn't let anyone hurt her, they'd never get through us." The grin was back.

"Of that I have no doubt, but still." I left it at that.

"Okay then, we'll be back right away." The two of them took off, giggling to each other.

Sookie excused herself, saying she was tired, which I didn't doubt, but I truly believe that she was still quite unnerved by everything. I gave her the time by herself, not wanting to hover, and not wanting to force her to have to think about the supernatural by having me to stare at; even if it was just for a few minutes. Mr. Cataliades and I took the opportunity to speak alone.

"The girls have given me a sample of the ash as well, and I will make some inquiries on Miss Stackhouse's behalf. I will also see if there has been any new chatter about yourself or movements in the Witch community." Indeed, those were things I wouldn't have been able to accomplish on my own. Funnily enough, most Witches didn't like me much just then. The feeling was mutual so I didn't care. For my part I knew of those in the Voodoo world in Louisiana who distanced themselves from the coven witches, who I could call on.

"What do you believe the motive behind this attack on Miss Stackhouse was Eric?"

"I don't know, and I know I am going to lose many hours of sleep trying to figure it out sir."

"If you were to guess?"

"Revenge of some sort, or a threat from someone remaining of Hallow's coven."

"A reasonable assumption, and a good place to begin an investigation. And what will you do with Miss Stackhouse?"

"I have to protect her, and I have to help her get her memories back. It is my fault that she is involved."

Mr. Cataliades simply nodded, though I got the impression that he had more he wanted to ask me.

The girls returned shortly after that with armfuls of bags, filled with fruit and vegetables, cookies and cheeses. And another one full of girly soaps and lotions and makeup, all other things I would have completely forgotten, including a toothbrush. I repaid the girls for all their trouble, and did thank them for pointing out my omissions, and for everything they had done out in Bon Temps. I was certain they would continue to be useful and it seemed that Diantha had taken a liking to Sookie, which also could not be a bad thing. Diantha would protect her if I couldn't always be there.

When I ventured back down the stairs I saw Sookie, curled up on one the chairs, staring at the fire, but not really seeing it. The tracks of the tears on her cheeks were obvious, as were the ragged little breaths rising from her lips. I felt a terrible hollowness in my chest just then, and went to her.

**Romance to come, part 5, it will be worth the wait.**

**Reviews are love.**


	5. Chapter 5

Just a happy little interlude for a sunny afternoon.

I don't own these characters.

Part 5

"Sookie?" I spoke quietly, just in case she was lost in her own thoughts; I didn't want to frighten her if she hadn't heard me coming down the stairs or bolting the lock.

"Yes Eric?" She didn't turn to look at me, which bothered me a bit; I didn't like that she seemed so fixated on the flames.

I hadn't thought much further about what I was going to say after that, so I improvised, holding up the bags of girly things the demons had brought.

"The girls brought you some things, and there's lots of food in the fridge upstairs for when you get hungry, or I could order you something?"

"Thank you." She sounded so weak.

"I promise you that we will find a cure for this Sookie. And that I will punish those who have done this to you." I saw her nod, and as I walked around to sit on the floor beside her curled up form I saw another few tears slip down her cheeks.

"Mr. Cataliades is going to do some searching today, and in the evening I will take you out to Bon Temps, you can see your house if you like, and we can do as he suggested."

"And spy on my friends?"

"Whatever it takes Sookie, to find you answers."

She finally did take her gaze away from the fireplace and let it rest on me.

"I don't even know how to 'read' people Eric. I'm useless."

"I think it will be alright Sookie. You're very talented. I've seen you work. I'm sure it will come as naturally to you as breathing."

More tears rolled, and I reached out a hand to brush one away.

"I'll have to go to sleep soon, sunrise is coming. I've locked the door, but here," I held up a key. "You can unlock it and go upstairs whenever you like. And you can watch the television here, or use the computer. There's even a nice big bathtub if you want to relax." Girls liked that sort of thing; at least I had been led to believe that. I put the key into her palm and curled her fingers around it. I loved the warm feeling of her skin as I held mine against hers. I didn't want to walk away from her then, but I knew that it would be worse to have her see the bleeds start if I stayed up too long into the daylight hours. With her face turned back to the fire I did finally let her hand go, and I quickly fetched her blankets and pillows should she want to try to sleep.

I was standing at the door to my bedroom when she spoke to me.

"Eric. Why are you doing all this for me?" She paused as if gathering the courage to continue. "Are we lovers? Or were we lovers?"

I stopped moving, feeling a shiver crawl up my spine from the base to my crown, a most anxious shiver. I couldn't turn to look at her, even though I could feel her eyes on me. I could have lied. I could have said yes and she would have believed me. I could have taken her in my arms, I could have tasted her mouth, I could have felt her body against mine. I could have taken her to my bed right then, and fulfilled the fantasies of so many nights, to plunge my body into hers and to feel her draw out all my passions. I could have betrayed the trust she had in me. For all I knew we had been. But I couldn't. My tense shoulders dropped, defeated.

"We are friends Sookie." I couldn't bring myself to actually say out loud that we were not lovers. I stepped into my room and beat a fist against my chest in anger.

My clothes ended up in heap on the floor, torn buttons flying across the room as I ripped my shirt off. Goddamned Witches! I threw myself at the bed, angry that the day was denied me just then, angry that I would have to wait for hours before I could do anything to find answers, anything but stew and replay memories or anything that might have been out of place in the past few days. A new face at the bar? A patron who acted oddly? A letter, a hung up phone call, a smell, a sound; all the possibilities ran roughshod across my mind, leaving me with nothing but further frustration. I was facing the possibility of a sleepless day and the discomfort of the bleeds, staring up at the black ceiling when I heard a tiny knock on my door. I pulled a blanket over my naked body just as the door pushed open a few inches.

"Eric?" She hesitantly peered into the darkened room. I could see her very well, but I doubted she could see much of me. Again her voice sounded colored by tears.

"I'm here Sookie." I sat up, trying to keep myself covered. Strange sense of morality I seemed to have suddenly developed.

"Can I come in?"

"Of course." My heart practically leapt at her request, right then I could think of very few things I desired more than her company. I watched her feel her way towards the edge of the bed, eyes finally growing accustomed to the dim, now enhanced just a bit by the amber flames from the fireplace whose light crept in the open door. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm sorry to bother you." She sniffled. "I was just laying there in front of the fire, with nothing to think about; no memories, no place to start any dreams, nothing. I just felt hollow." She sniffed back more tears, and rubbed at her face angrily. "Please Eric, I can't stand it. I can't stand being so alone."

"Stay with me." I offered softly as I pulled back the covers on the bed beside where I was lying. She looked so relieved as I did so, and yet still approached me cautiously, carefully climbing onto my bed, watching my eyes as she slid her feet under the blanket. I smiled at her. "You are not alone. You will always have me. I promise you that." The words seemed to comfort her enough that she was able to lay her head on the pillow beside me. I slid down so that I was facing her, lying on my side. How many times had I dreamed of just such a thing?

"Tomorrow can't be any worse than today, can it Eric?" I could hear the fatigue finally in her voice.

"Of course not." I didn't really believe my own words, because I knew that things could get a great deal worse, though I hoped sincerely that they wouldn't. Then Sookie did something that surprised me; or perhaps I should say she did something else that surprised me. She cuddled into me under the covers, tucking her head against my chest.

"I can't keep you warm Sookie, I'm sorry." I whispered to her as I bent my face to the top of her head, inhaling the fresh smell of her hair.

"I'll keep you warm then." She put her hands on my bare chest. I know I trembled as she did it. "You are such a good man Eric." The whisper would have been nearly impossible for anyone but me to hear. I laughed just as quietly.

"What's so funny?"

"I think you might be the only person in the whole world who thinks that."

"Then everyone else is an idiot."

"Oh Sookie." I leaned in and kissed her forehead. I closed my eyes and tasted her skin on my lips. The hint of a memory washed over me. The taste, I had known it before. I had to believe that some time before that moment that I had kissed her, the rush was tantalizing, and just on the edge of my ability to recollect, never the less it was there. I closed my eyes and wrapped her in my arms, drawing her close to my chest, and I listened to her breathing slow and her heartbeat calm as she drifted to sleep, myself not far behind her, worries forgotten in the scent and feel of her beside me.


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks for all the reviews of my last chapter, it's great to know that you are all still out there, and that you are taking this ride with me, even if it is a little slower than my usual affairs. Who knew I wanted plot to be as important as lemons eh? I promise it will be worth your while.

Enjoy this little outing with CH's characters.

Merick

Part 6

The scent of her body remained in my bed, and as I woke it flooded my senses. As exhausted as I had been, she had slept soundly. Her presence beside me had been comforting, keeping my angry emotions from overwhelming my thoughts. And though I knew that now with the setting of the sun that I would have to deal with the circumstances that had brought her to me, I lingered beside her for a few minutes longer, deliberately breathing in the sweet smell of her, and the scent of her blood, hearing her pulse pound in my ears in the silence of the room.

There was something about her blood, not that I wanted to say that was what had first drawn me to notice her, because I believed it was more than just the lust to taste her. It was something else that made her so special, besides the telepathy, and her stubborn self-confidence, and her loyalty, and her beauty. I reached out to her still sleeping form and ran two fingers lightly down the side of her face, curving around her chin and just onto the upper part of her arm, the one not curled under her chest, wrapped under the quilts. She trembled, and then wrapped her fingers over my side, under the sheet, curving them around my ribs without opening her eyes. I hoped just then that I could have become part of whatever dream was occupying her thoughts. I brushed a few strands of hair from her eyes. Her hand slid down, to come to rest just at the small of my back as she drew her body closer to mine, and she moaned just softly into her pillow. I couldn't help but drop my fangs; the beginnings of my arousal were instinctual.

Her eyelids began to flutter and she began slowly taking in the sight of where she was, and who she was with, but instead of being frightened, which I could not have blamed her for feeling, she smiled at me.

"Good Evening Sookie."

"Good Evening." She came to the transposition of human greetings fluidly. I wondered if any of that was from a practice her memory might have forgotten but that her mind retained. I didn't want to think about the time she had spent with Bill Compton, but his part in her life was in the back of my mind too. And I knew that at some point, unless we restored her memory quickly, that she would ask me those kinds of things, and that I would have to tell her about how she had come to be a part of the Vampire world. I wasn't looking forward to that conversation, but I was going to make damn sure that when we had it she knew the whole truth of what Bill had done to her. Maybe it was petty, so sue me. I was also going to make sure she knew as many good things about my nature as she could. Of course, always present in my mind was the fact that I had retained nothing from my time in her position. So it might not matter what kind of conversations we had; they might all be lost too. 'Damned if I do, and damned if I don't' came to mind quickly. I tried to push the feelings away.

"Did you sleep well?"

"I did. Thank you for letting me stay here with you. I know you must think I'm very silly, a grown woman afraid to be by herself."

"No, I don't think you're silly. I actually know a great deal about what it feels like to be alone."

"How old are you Eric? Can I ask you that?"

"I'm just over a thousand years old."

"Wow." Her innocence was so charming. "Can I see your fangs?"

I smiled broadly.

"Wow. Have you ever bitten me?"

"I have tasted your blood, yes."

"Why?"

"You were," I paused, hesitant to frighten her any more than the circumstances already had, but I knew I had to be truthful, she trusted me. "You were poisoned, I was helping to heal you."

"I've led a pretty exciting life for a waitress haven't I? Was I a bad person, that all these things happened to me Eric?"

"No, not at all. You're a really good person Sookie; maybe too good. People have used you for their own purposes, and that has drawn you into danger."

"Did you?" A fair question on her part, even as she was lying in my bed, hand still on my skin.

"You have worked for me before, and that has led you into danger, but never by my design. You were always so generous to offer your help to me. I probably should have refused it, but it was always hard to say no to you Sookie." My mind was filled with the memories of her standing with Godric. She had been with him when I could not. That favor alone had put me in her debt for a lifetime. "You have done me a great many favors Sookie." I assured her.

I wanted so much at that moment to reach out and touch her face once again. The memory of her with Godric roused strong emotions with me. The way that she had come to me after, to comfort me when I was at my worst; her soul was so pure. I wanted to kiss her, and I wanted to make love to her, remembering her tenderness. I knew I was staring at her, and the blush that rose to her cheek told me that my gaze was embarrassing her.

"Why don't you go and wash up first Sookie?" I only had one bathroom in my suites, it had only ever been me down there before, and I hadn't needed another.

"It's okay Eric, this is your house. You should get first chance at the hot water."

"Well it's just that I'm not wearing any clothes right now Sookie."

The blush turned to a bright red. "You mean? All night? I've been?"

I laughed at her, loving her stuttering. I nodded. She flew out of bed, apologizing. I heard the water go on and only then did I rise, wrapping myself in a robe and going upstairs to where I heard Pam also starting to move about.

She met me at the top of the stairs with a hanger in one hand, holding up a wrap around dress, and sandals in the other.

"I knew you'd forget she'd need something to wear." She thrust the clothing towards me. Her tone of voice was infuriatingly superior.

"Well thank you Pam."

"She going to be here long then?"

"As long as it takes. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Am I going to need ear plugs for you two?"

"I'm not having sex with her Pam. I'm trying to protect her." I felt a trifle peeved that she thought I was taking advantage of Sookie. Of course, Pam had known me a long time, and selfish physical pleasure had been a part of my nature most of that time. But I shouldn't say selfish, I have always ensured that my partners were satisfied.

"Sure." She nodded, and turned on her heel. "I'll be at the club if you need me." I could see that Pam wasn't thrilled about the arrangement. Neither of us made it a point to have 'visitors' at the house, sort of an unspoken arrangement between us. But Sookie was different than a one-night stand, quite different. Pam was just probably being Pam and I let it go, I didn't have time to worry about her either. At least until she yelled from upstairs,

"And Demons in the house too Eric?"

Apparently the scent of my visitors also offended her delicate sensibilites. Ah well, she could light some candles.

I left the dress out on the couch for Sookie, and added a bowl of cut up fruit; a glass of juice and some of the Oreo cookies the girls had left. Perhaps not a balanced meal, but I'd get her more protein when we went out. I had a bit of a plan in mind, one that I worked on in the shower while she dressed and ate.

Diantha met us at Fangtasia, Sookie had agreed to me calling her to keep her company while I took the pouch of ash to an acquaintance. Sookie had chosen the semi-demon over the Voodoo practitioner and I left them eating hamburgers and French fries, with careful instructions to Diantha to watch what she said, so as not to upset Sookie.

Papa B, as he liked to be called, had actually sought me out years earlier. He was an old man back then, and had gained even more creases in his face, and shuffles in his walk since then. He had a storefront in New Orleans, off Bourbon Street, and far back from the tourists. The remedies and items he sold were for true practitioners and believers, not visitors looking for souvenirs. He had come to see me, at the club, after making an appointment, as I recalled, unlike my darling Sookie. It seemed that a former employee had cursed a relative of his, as he told it. The curse had been particularly evil, cast by a very old mambo, and required a very special potion to dissolve it, the blood of the undead, taken in a very specific way. So, as he could not simply buy V on the street, he came to me.

After listening to his story, and his offer, I gave him the blood as he requested. I watched as he added it to a small phial, and watched as the subsequent ingredients that he added to it first curdled and then burned it. It was quite educational, and demonstrated his prowess to me. I had known then that having him as an ally would some day be useful. Today was that day.

"Brother Eric." He had greeted me in that way since our first meeting, I had taken the courtesy of calling ahead as well. I stepped past the beaded curtain in to his office at the back of the shop, drawing stares from the Hounsi women who were working behind the counter. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"I find myself in need of your expertise Papa B. I am hoping that you can tell me what this is?" I pulled the still unopened pouch from the inside pocket of my jacket. I warned him that I did not know what it had been used for, or if it still held the spell that had afflicted Sookie; if it was even connected to her amnesia.

He smiled a grin of mostly gums, so different that Diantha and Gladiola, or even myself. But it didn't make him look any less capable funnily enough. He took the pouch from me, sniffed it, and shook it, also without opening it. Then took a cup from the counter behind himself and poured out a circle of salt on the black tablecloth. He put the pouch in the center on the circle, and to its left he put a red candle, which he lit with a wooden match. Only after the flame was well settled did he pour out the contents. It was my first view of them as well.

What the girls had called ash was more of a mixture of dust, dirt and ash, and as Papa B poked a finger through it I could see larger pieces, like flakes. He made several odd noises under his breath. Then he looked at me again.

"And you say the person who had this around her house has been robbed of her memories?"

"Yes."

"Hmmm." He picked up some of the matter and rubbed it between his wrinkled fingertips. "Not nice at all Brother Eric."

"What is it?"

"Grave soil, human bone, and ash from valerian, poppy and skullcap herbs. Blood too, smells like a wolf, but not a wolf?" He smiled at me, he knew about Werewolves but wasn't about to say it out loud.

"Bloody hell." I whispered. "Did this powder cause her to lose her memories?"

"Didn't help." He shook his head. "Don't know if it did the whole deed, but would have made your friend sleep, and made her vulnerable."

"So they could have used this to render her unconscious?"

"Most certainly."

"Is there anything you can do to help my friend Papa B?"

"The witch who cast the spell will likely have to remove it."

I was afraid that he was going to say something like that.

"But let me see what I can do Brother Eric. Papa B still knows a thing or two about hexes and how to find their makers. You bring your lady to see me in a few days. Maybe I can find something to help her, or maybe the Loa will come to her and help her gros bon ange find its way again."

It was something, and I thanked Papa B for his help. Dropping my fangs I scratched a fingertip and let the blood drip onto a white cloth I had brought with myself. I left it on the table and he grinned at me, nodding his head again. It was a fair payment, and I would have gladly given him more, would give him more when I brought Sookie back. I left the shop, feeling just a little better than when I had come in. I flew back to Fangtasia to pick up Sookie, and my car.


	7. Chapter 7

Things were getting a bit long, so I've left you a wee bit of a cliff-hanger with this installment of plot. There will be more soon, and some real Vampire intimacy.

Enjoy this run, promise, citrus next chapter.

Merick

Part 7

It was well after midnight when we arrived in Bon Temps, going first to Sookie's house. Our drive down had been quiet, I could see the tension growing in the way she held her body as every mile ticked away. She had asked about Papa B, and I had told her everything he had offered. She spoke a little about Diantha, that they had listened to some music and that Diantha had told her about her job, she worked for her uncle, doing whatever he needed. The idea of a conversation with a semi-demon didn't seem so frightening to her any longer, no more frightening than one with a vampire I guessed. But her silence for the last twenty miles spoke volumes about how terrified she still really was. I reached over and took her hand as I pulled the car into her long, graveled driveway. She held mine firmly as she stared forward into the darkness. The way her brows furrowed, I knew she was willing herself to recognize something in what she saw up ahead. Her motion sensor lights came on as I pulled my car around the back, and parked it beside her little hatchback.

Her car being there meant that she had likely been taken from home as opposed to having been kidnapped from work or somewhere else. It was another clue to add to the pile.

"Are you ready?" I asked her as she scanned the house from within the car. She nodded, biting her lip. I got out and opened her door for her. She stepped forth cautiously. I listened carefully around us, and heard nothing but the expected sounds of night, and forest life. The air provided nothing unexpected either. I followed her as she went up the porch steps, looking at the old wicker furniture, and at the blackened windows. She tried the doorknob, but as Diantha had reported, it was locked. She looked at me for a solution.

"Wait here." I asked, as I stepped back from the porch to survey the upper floor. "I may have to break a window frame?"

"Okay."

I leapt up and hovered just in front of a small dormer close to the roof. The wooden frame of the window had been latched in place, but the old brass housing was no match for me as I grabbed at the outside casing and pushed it upward. I ducked inside, having been granted permission by Sookie herself at my last visit, not that she remembered it. It seemed to have held. I let her in through the front door, and I turned on a number of lights for her.

Not that I had expected to see a smile cross her face as soon as she entered the large main sitting room, but I suppose I had expected something more than what she offered. Her expression remained quite neutral, at least initially, as she scanned the room. She walked over to the large mantle over the stone fireplace, and I followed her. She picked up a picture frame and looked at the people in the photo carefully. Sadly there was no instant glimmer of recognition, and I knew better than to ask her if she remembered anything. Her expression said it all as the neutrality collapsed into sadness.

"It's a photo of your Grandmother Sookie. Looking at the two children with her, I have to assume that they are yourself and your friend Tara." She put the frame back, and reached for another. I could see her lip quivering.

"That's your brother Jason." I recognized him, it was a much more recent photo.

"My mom and dad?" She pointed at another picture.

"I'm sorry, I don't know. That would be my guess."

"Nothing." She whispered to herself sadly, turning away from the gallery of smiling faces.

"Why don't you look around a bit? I'm just going to go and have a look in your utility room for some nails to fix the window casing I broke." I wanted her to have the time alone, I didn't want her to feel as if her lack of recollection was disappointing me as well. I went through the kitchen, noting no dishes in the sink or objects out of place. I was just pulling open the third drawer in a cabinet, finally seeing the nails I was looking for when I heard her call out to me.

"Eric?" Her voice sounded a little panicked and I rushed to her side, in the second bedroom on the main floor of her home. The sight I saw gave me pause.

"You said that my boss,"

"Sam."

"Yes, Sam said that I called to ask for time off because I had to go away?"

"He did."

Laid out on the bed was an old suitcase, half packed with Sookie's clothing, with other articles lying on the bed beside it, waiting to be placed inside. Her purse was beside the brown leather case.

"Have you found anything like a ticket for a plane or bus or train?"

"No, I haven't looked."

"Do you mind?" I motioned towards the suitcase.

"Please." I looked through everything in the case while she dumped out the contents of her purse and began unfolding all the pieces of paper.

We found nothing to indicate a destination, and I surmised that wherever she was headed, that she was likely going to be driving. She agreed with the assessment. She also noted that she'd only packed a couple of pairs of underwear, blushing as she did so. But it said to her that she must have only been planning on being gone a few days, perhaps a weekend.

In good news, her purse did contain her house and car keys, and her wallet. So we wouldn't have to break into her home again when we wanted to return. I left her again, as she was going through the contents of her wallet; the receipts of recent purchases and some photos, as well as her ID. I went to fix the window. It didn't take much effort to push the nails into the wood, sealing the break adequately enough. I thought then that I should have asked Papa B for something to help protect the house from any further intruders; assuming there had been intruders in the first place, and I thought that was a safe assumption. Of course I wasn't about to let Sookie stay there again, not until we had things sorted out, so I had time to rectify my omission. I took a few more minutes to prowl around the house, trying to see if I could smell anything out of place, anything that wasn't Sookie, especially anything supernatural.

I could definitely smell someone else's scent, but it was faint, having likely been two days old. I wasn't a were, as keen as my senses were, and I did wish for just a moment that I had a were-bloodhound at my disposal right then. I was also aware of the same smell as the ash mixture, despite the girls attempts to dispose of it, which left me wondering if something hadn't been burnt in the house. I began looking for ashtrays, and finally ended up at the fireplace, where there certainly did seem to be something foreign amidst the logs. I retrieved a plastic bag from the utility room, I'd found them while looking for the nails, and scooped some into it.

Sookie was in the master bedroom; I assumed it was her room, because I couldn't remember ever being invited in there. I have to admit a bit of a tremor stepping into it though; just wishful thinking I suppose. She was sitting on the edge of the bed; I don't know that she was looking at much of anything.

"I hate knowing that I should recognize everything here Eric, because I don't. I don't remember anything about who I was. Nothing." Her grip on the patchwork quilt under her was turning her knuckles white.

"I understand Sookie." I sat down beside her.

"How can you Eric?"

"Because the same thing happened to me Sookie."

"What?"

"I know all about what it feels like because I was cursed by a witch as well, on New Years Eve."

"But you know who you are?"

"We were able to remove the curse, but not immediately. I spent time just as you are now, not knowing who I was. And to this day I don't really know what happened to me during those weeks."

"Nothing?"

"Only what I have been told by others. Pam has told me that it was you who found me, and who took me in, keeping me safe while she searched for a way to restore me to myself."

"I took you in?"

"You did Sookie, I told you that you are a good person. You kept me safe in your home when you didn't have to."

"But I didn't tell you what happened?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I can only guess Sookie. I fear that something I did then has left you unwilling to talk of it. I only hope that I did not hurt you, or cause you embarrassment."

"Oh Eric. I'm sorry."

"You have no need to be sorry Sookie."

She leaned her head into my chest; I felt the tears begin again. I wrapped my arms around her.

"Is that why you are looking after me Eric? Because you feel obligated?"

"No, not at all Sookie. I admit that I feel guilt at you having been drawn into this because I believe, as I have said, that this was done to you to hurt me. But there is no obligation motivating me." Perhaps it wasn't completely true, I did feel obligated to her, and I wanted to know what had happened to her, and to me, and that kept me close to her, and maybe that was bad. I don't know. I knew it wasn't obligation the way she meant it. I wanted to be with her through this.

"Being with me, these last two nights, has it brought back anything to you Eric?" She sounded so desperate for an answer as she stood and began to pace, and I wanted to give her one.

"Just feelings Sookie, vague ideas at the edge of my consciousness that something is familiar."

"Like what?" She turned to focus on me again.

"Like when I kissed you last night, the taste of your skin, and the feel of it against my lips. I felt as if I recognized it, or something in it. Like I had been that close to you before, in that frame of mind." I'd been close to her in instances I remembered quite well. I remembered her scent, but as I have tried to describe earlier, there was something different in that simple kiss that hinted at an intimacy the other encounters had not embodied; not in the least. I knew I was taking a chance in telling her that, but I just felt I needed to give her something, and some kind of hope.

Fortunately she didn't ask what I meant by 'that frame of mind' because I think if I'd tried to explain it that I would have really risked offending or embarrassing her. Though the line of inquiry she did begin left me nearly as unsettled.

"When was the last time you fed Eric?"


	8. Chapter 8

**So, I hope you remember where we left off,… tee hee, I'm so evil some days. Bring on a little 'antici - pation'. (With all thanks to Rocky Horror)**

**I don't own these characters but thank the stars everyday that CH created them so I can take them out to play.**

Part 8

I couldn't answer her right away; mostly because I was stunned by the question. I was also a little stunned by the implications it offered me. Or perhaps I should best say what I believed she was about to offer me.

"A couple of nights ago, but at my age I don't have to eat as often as the younger Vampires. I am not hungry if you are concerned."

"No, not concerned." She reached her hands back and began to twirl her long blond hair into a knot of sorts, tucking it over her right shoulder. She'd worn it long that night, I liked the look of it much more than the ponytail I was used to seeing her in. "I wonder, you said that they taste of my skin brought back something to you?"

"Yes?" If I'd had a heartbeat it would have been speeding up just then.

"What if you tasted my blood Eric, do you think it might bring back something else?" She pulled at the collar of the shirt dress Pam had lent her, exposing the skin at her neck for me.

"You don't have to do this Sookie." I was saying the words, but even as I did, I rose from my sitting position on her bed and took a step towards her. She kept her eyes locked on me and her lips parted in a soft semblance of desperation.

"Please Eric. It might give us something, if you remember." She pleaded with me, not that she really needed to. I didn't think I could have refused her then. I wanted her so badly, and I wanted to remember.

I reached out my left hand, and laid it on her shoulder as I crossed to stand behind her. With my right hand I stroked her neck, leaning it away from the offered vein, and turned her chin just a bit, to expose her flesh to my mouth. I brought my face to her, inhaling deeply of her scent again, hearing her heart beat begin to flutter. I whispered to her.

"I won't hurt you Sookie." And I brushed my lips across her warm skin, my own fingers trembling as I did so.

"I know Eric." She whispered back.

My left hand snaked down her arm and curled across her abdomen, pulling her body into mine as I stood. My fangs dropped with a gentle 'snick', and with my mouth open I kissed her neck. I felt her hold her breath and so I carefully, and slowly breached the skin with my teeth. I held her firmly against my chest so that she would not start at the bite. I did not wish to tear her flesh; I derived no pleasure from causing lovers pain. She cried out very softly at the sting, but quickly enough I had pulled my teeth back and there was no further pain.

The blood welled into my mouth from the beating of her heart. I did not draw on the wound to pull the blood to myself, not wishing to leave her with an ugly bruise. I swallowed the first pulse, feeling the warmth spread from my mouth, down my throat, seeming then to radiate out to all points of my body. I closed my eyes and coaxed at the bite with my tongue, eliciting a beautiful moan from Sookie, and the release of the tense muscles under her skin, allowing her to melt into my arms. I moved my right hand to better support her and continued to tease at her with my tongue, letting the blood take me where it would.

It was like holding a tiny bird in my arms, heart fluttering in terror, or perhaps acquiescence, her breath at first stuttered, leveling out to one long breath after another. Her arms wrapped themselves around mine, and again, my whole body felt her warmth. I took more generous mouthfuls, feeling my mind begin to open to me, feeling the familiarity grow until I knew without hesitation that I had taken her blood like this before, blood freely offered to me out of nothing more than the pursuit of intimacy.

The small punctures began to clot, as I wasn't putting any pressure on them to force them open, and I released my hold on her by carefully kissing them and then straightening up and stepping back from the solid embrace I had been holding her in. She let her head fall forward and her hair cascaded around her shoulders again. She turned back to face me, very slowly. A worry rushed through me that my actions might have frightened her, until she looked up at me and smiled softly.

"Thank you." I said to her, still quietly, not wanting to disrupt the comfortable peace that had settled over us both.

"Anything?"

"I have held you that way before." I was certain of it then, even if the full force of the memory still remained tantalizingly just outside of my mind's ability to grasp it. "We have shared that type of intimacy before Sookie. It felt so good to have you in my arms that way."

She blushed. "But you said we had never been lovers Eric?" She couldn't look at me when she said it.

"I said that we had been friends Sookie, and that is the truth. Before now I could not say honestly to you that we had been anything more. But the holes in my memory do not change that fact that I have wished it to be so, many, many times." Perhaps it was more than I should have said, but I needed to say it.

"And now Eric?"

I reached out for her again, cupping her face and guiding her towards me.

"And now I wish only that you could remember what we shared, that you could feel some of what I am feeling right now, to know, to have that starting place to rebuild from."

"Eric?" I hovered very close to her, and tilted her chin upwards to me.

"Taste me." I whispered. And then I pressed my mouth over hers and parted her lips, grinding against her carefully.

It was she who pressed the tip of her tongue against mine, at first shyly, but only for that moment, and then, with arms wrapped around my back, she pushed herself against me, and let her tongue dance with mine for a blissful forever. I heard her heartbeat begin to race again, and I felt the desperation in her kiss, even as she pulled away.

"I have kissed you like that before." She said, as soon as she had caught her breath. It was my turn to smile because I felt it as well.

"Why don't you pack up the rest of that suitcase?" I asked, "We have only a few hours to get back home."

"Can't we stay here?"

"I cannot protect you here Sookie. Once the daylight comes I will have to go to ground and then you will be alone. At my home, at least, I know that I can defend you against anyone stupid enough to try to come after you, no matter the hour."

She sighed, and looked around at her bedroom again, I don't know what she was thinking of then, I only know that I wanted to stay there, I really did, because I wanted to lay her down on the bed and undo the tied on her dress, and make love to her, because I knew we had done just that, in that bed before. I can't explain exactly how I'd made that leap, from her blood, to her lips, to her body, but I had. And I wanted her to know it too. But there wasn't time, it wasn't safe, and there was still so much to do back in Shreveport, and New Orleans to see about restoring her memory and discovering why it had been taken in the first place. For the second time in as many days I cursed the daylight, or rather, the fact that my nature denied it to me.

I hated to see her nod with the understanding of my request, but I knew it had to be that way, and I also knew that one kiss, as wonderful and tempting as it was, might not lead her to the same feelings as I was having, or at least not as quickly. She packed the bag and I checked over all the doors and windows one more time, to assure myself that there were no other piles of ash, or bundles of herbs that might cause us further grief.

Even with nothing more than the awakening of something in both our minds, it gave us comfort, and the ride back to Shreveport passed quickly, if not quietly. Of course it could have been that I drove like a demon, if you'll pardon the expression.


	9. Chapter 9

**Welcome home; let's get a little insight into Pam for a moment, and set-up even more 'tension'.**

**Thanks for reading.**

Part 9

We returned to my home, Sookie insisting on clutching the old leather bag we'd found in her spare bedroom. I would have taken it downstairs for her, but it seemed as if she saw it as the connection to her life and her memories. I could respect that, and I let her take it on her own. I was going to follow her, but I heard Pam begin to stir in her rooms, and she met me at the top of the stairs. I could tell she needed to talk, mostly by the way she followed Sookie's passage downwards, and by the look she gave me when Sookie disappeared from view.

"Yes?" Perhaps I said it in a way that sounded more annoyed than I meant it, perhaps not. I was tired, and I was still aroused to some degree by the taste of her, still in my mouth and my memory. And really I just wanted to stay with her; I wanted to build on the small steps we had taken. And selfishly, I wanted her to see me, and think about me, and maybe come back to my bed that day. All right, I was annoyed.

"Is she staying another day?"

"She is. Does that bother you?"

"Somewhat." I swear it could only have been more aggravating to me if she'd started tapping her foot at me just then. Even my mother hadn't tried that type of irritating nonsense with me.

"Perhaps you could explain yourself then Pam?"

"If you are worried about protecting her Diantha and Gladiola could do that. They seem to like her, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

I didn't respond, since Pam seemed to have more to say.

"Besides Eric," see, I was right, "they can protect her twenty-four seven. Not that you are powerless during the day," I was so glad she's added that part because I was starting to feel my ire rise. "But they can effectively deal with any threat."

"She will be staying here with me Pam."

"I can understand why you want that Eric, I really can. I know you need to know why this has happened to her, and I agree with you that it was likely done to threaten you somehow. I want to know the same thing. And I know you want your memories of what happened with her back, and that you think by keeping her close that it will happen."

"Yes?" I was gritting my teeth just a bit, I know Pam saw it, and understood that she had better get to her point quickly.

"I have seen the way you have been these last weeks, not knowing. I have seen how much distress it has caused you. Eric, I don't want her to hurt you any further."

And now we were coming to the heart of the matter.

"Eric?" She reached out and grabbed both my hands, clutching them tightly. "I have cursed myself every day that I have seen you suffer, cursed the choice I made to leave you with Sookie. I should have taken you somewhere else, found someone else who would protect you, and be honest with you. I should have done it myself Eric, and I will be sorry forever that I didn't."

"So why did you leave me Pam?"

"You looked," she paused, searching for the right word, probably thinking about her choice so as not to send me into further rage or despair. "You looked happy there, and comfortable, and safe. She looked like she cared about you, like she would care for you. Not like she was going to hide everything and deceive you. I love you Eric I don't want more pain for you."

The anger in my chest began to abate. I had known Pam a long time, and even though I had long ago released her from any obligation to me as her maker, she still cared for me in the same way, and it meant even more because of that freedom.

"I don't believe that Sookie has ever meant to hurt me Pam. I am certain that we will find more answers together than apart."

"Forgive me Eric, but I don't have the same faith in her that you do."

She just looked at me then, noting else to say. And then dropped my hand with pursed lips and a sad little smile and left me standing there alone. Whether her instincts about Sookie were right or wrong, and I sincerely hoped they were wrong, I knew she would stand by me. There was a comfort in that.

Downstairs I found Sookie, feet curled under her, sitting in one of the wing chairs by the fire; which she had lit. She was looking at a little book, something she must have tucked into the suitcase when she finished packing it. As I approached I could see that it was a photo album. She heard me coming.

"I seemed to be pretty happy in these." She said with a little smile, turning her face to me. I could see that she had changed into night clothes, but wow, not quite the long sleep shirts I had pictured her owning; when I pictured her in such things. I'm sure they call them spaghetti straps, and the plunging lace, especially as I looked down at her, left a wonderful view of décolletage for me. I tried very hard not to look as hungry as I suddenly felt. "You said this is my Grandmother?" She pointed to a happy round face of the gray haired woman. Looking at her Grandmother's smile helped.

"Yes."

"And my brother?" Jason's leering grin leapt from the page.

"Yes, that's Jason."

"The whole book is family, and a few pictures of Tara, that was her name right?"

"Yes." Seemed I couldn't come up with particularly complicated answers just then, my mind was elsewhere, somewhere in the shadows of navy blue lace it seemed.

"Didn't I have any other friends?"

"Your abilities tended to scare people Sookie. But you still have your friends at work, Sam and Arlene." I didn't much care for Arlene, can't say why exactly, something about her rubbed me the wrong way. "And Lafayette, Tara's cousin, and Terry, the cooks."

"But not so many from growing up eh?"

"Children can be cruel Sookie." Or so I'd been told, I hadn't had much chance to experience it personally. "But it really is an amazing talent, you are a very unique person, and very special, and you have learned to use your skills to good end."

"Did I ever have a boyfriend?"

Oh I didn't want to answer that question.

"I don't think you ever told me about a boyfriend when you were growing up." I tried to avoid mentioning his name.

"And after?" But apparently she was going to pull it out of me, I thought quickly of how I could spin it to my advantage. But of course, sometimes the truth is the easiest thing.

"His name was Bill." I sat down in the chair beside hers, still distracted by the satin sheen of what she was wearing. "William Compton. He is a vampire, like me."

"Seriously? I dated a vampire?" I felt a little hurt by her quick reaction to the statement, for obvious reasons. She seemed to see that, and added a quick, "sorry, that didn't come out right."

I tried to laugh it off, but I felt a little sick.

"What happened?"

"Bill was not honest with you Sookie. He had his own agenda for wanting to be with you."

"Because of my 'gift'?"

"I suspect so, but I was never in his confidence about those matters. Actually, I wasn't in his confidence about much."

"You weren't friends?"

"No. Not even close." Bill Compton would have sold out his own mother to the Queen as far as I could assess him. To profess love for someone, only to trade them for some sort of favor was beyond reprehensible in my books, and that really was saying a lot. I had no problem with acquiring assets, or amassing favors, even to having someone in my debt, but human beings, vampires included, were not chattel.

"Will you tell me more about what happened?"

"I was really not party to the exact details Sookie. He abandoned you, and yet still you searched for him, putting your own life at great risk. He hurt you greatly because he knew things about you and sold that information for his own gains. I understand you were not able to continue to trust what he told you after that, and you asked him to leave you be. Banished him from your home, as I recall."

"Wow. How long ago was that?"

"Several months."

"Was that when our friendship began to develop Eric?"

"I think we had begun a type of alliance before then, but it grew afterwards."

"So if I broke up with my boyfriend, whom did I buy all this lingerie for?" She stood up.

Wow didn't begin to describe her.

**Reviews are love, and inspire me to write the really good stuff.**


	10. Chapter 10

Oh I hope you like this, I know I've made you wait an awful long time, but I think it might just have been worth the wait. Do let me know.

Merick

Part 10

Midnight blue, it could have been the darkened sky that had been my only glimpse of the firmament in a thousand years. I'm certain there was a name for the style of the nightgown she was wearing, I didn't know it, not that that fact would have surprised Pam at all. Periodically she'd get it in her head to try to explain A lines and Empire waists, stilettos, and kitten heels to me. It never held because fashion never interested me. I'll try to describe it.

Lace triangles covered her breasts, modestly enough not to display the changes in shades at their centers, but enticing enough to display their firm lateral swells. The spaghetti straps crossed at the back, which plunged to reveal the gentle curve at the small of her back. A satin strip banded under her breasts and from that a river of fabric cascaded downwards, clinging to her hips as if it was truly dark water, covering her legs almost all the way to the floor. She looked breathtaking with her long blond hair draped over her shoulders. It was exactly as I would have pictured a lover; elegant, poised, beautiful, speaking to me with her mere being, not over-exposed flesh and sexual poses.

'Me, me, me! You bought it for me!' The little devil sitting on my left shoulder began to shriek as he frantically hopped up and down, pitchfork thrashing about erratically. The angel on my right shoulder was slightly more subdued, and before you say it, yes, I do have an angel, and I am offended that you would think otherwise. That angel whispered in my ear, 'you are not the only man in her life Eric. You may believe that she has shared her body with you, but you know for certain that she has found comfort in the arms of the wolf.'

Bloody, fucking hell! Alcide Herveaux. I had completely forgotten about him. That midnight blue was the same sky he looked into when he expressed his dual nature. When Sookie had been in Jackson she had stayed with him, and I knew he wasn't going to have any further issues with his ex; I'd dug the grave after all. That meant that he was truly single, and so was Sookie, and after a relationship with a vampire having gone so wrong perhaps, just perhaps she wanted something different? A warm body to lie beside? A chance at having a family? She might not have wanted to tell me the truth of what had happened because she truly felt nothing for me, at least nothing akin to what she felt for the wolf. Perhaps it was guilt?

Doubt is a cancer, and worse than silver at breaking a spirit. Pain threatened anger and I looked away from her.

"Eric? The tags were still on it, do you have any ideas?" I didn't know if she was simply naïve, or if she was teasing me. All of a sudden I couldn't read her.

"No." I said sadly. One lie, gods forgive me. I couldn't say his name, and the angel wouldn't let me say mine. The devil stabbed me with his pitchfork.

"I'm going to go and get ready to sleep." I mumbled, and stepped into the bathroom. I ran the water in the sink and glared at myself in the mirror, my grip on the counter threatening to snap off two fist sized chunks of the marble. What the hell was I supposed to do? My chest hurt, but my gut ached with desire for her. I wanted to be good, but I also wanted to be really bad.

I wanted to lift her into my arms and carry her to my bed. I wanted to slide that blue fabric up her legs and plunge myself into a willing body. And I wanted to hear her cry out my name. The devil said 'do it!' she probably won't remember this time anyways when you get her memory back for her', the angel said 'she might, or this might become her new reality, don't fuck it up', apparently my angel could swear like a trucker. Seemed reasonable at the time especially since it was just my own mind talking. I took off my shirt, and splashed water on my face; it was hot, it didn't matter. I still didn't know what I was going to do when I heard her approach the door, and then tap on it, with just her fingernails. I dried my face and opened it to her.

"I've hurt you." She said.

"Of course not." I grit my teeth and made to move past her, but a hand placed on my arm held me fast.

"I'm sorry. I'd say that I forget sometimes, but that seems a little stupid right now. I'm just trying to find answers and sometimes it seems that I just say things out loud as they come to me."

"You always did." She laughed.

"Bred in the bone I suppose."

She looked past me to see herself in the mirror and brushed her hair away from the left side of her neck, where I had taken her blood.

"I thought the marks would be bigger." She referred to the two puncture wounds.

"They don't have to be. If you're careful." Seeing them forced me to look at her again, the innocent beauty that she seemed to hold about herself was intoxicating as was the memory of the taste of her and the cusp of awareness we had shared. "This must be so hard for you Eric."

"Why would you say that?" I leaned back on the counter, willing myself not to break it.

"You don't know what to say to me, I don't know what to say to you. Both of us seem to be so afraid of the doing the wrong thing. You are trying so hard not to hurt me, and to not tell me the truth of so many things that must have been so sad for me. And I know I've hurt you, and I don't want to hurt you again."

"Sookie."

"I don't know what I can promise you for the future Eric, but if you are willing to take what I can give you right now?" She stopped speaking mid sentence and stepped towards me, almost to touching me. I could hear her heart beat, fluttering again, I could feel the shy trembling of her chest in the scant air between us, and I could smell deeply of her, her perfume, her hair, the salt of the anxious perspiration on her lips. She curled delicate fingers around the back of my neck and pulled my face down to hers, pressing her mouth against mine so softly. She stepped into the circle of my open arms and allowed me to crush her against my body, even as I crushed her lips with the passion that washed through me.

I think the angel even gave me the thumbs up.

We stumbled from the confined bathroom back into my living room, me unwilling to let her go, her seemingly the same. The amber glow of the fireplace light played off her hair. Already golden it turned to further brilliance and her skin gleamed with warmth and the desire I was beginning to scent on her body. She could not have failed to feel the physical manifestations of my arousal as I held her.

"Do you wish to take my blood Eric?" She began to twirl her hair again, away from her neck.

"It isn't your blood that I want right now Sookie." I spoke my words sincerely and carefully, looking into her eyes and running two fingers down the side of her face. I saw a shiver run the length of her body, and her lips begin to tremble as she yielding slightly into my touch.

"I want you too Eric." She whispered, still too shy to hold my gaze as she so.

It was all she needed to say, and all my heart and mind needed to hear. As in the fantasy I did sweep her up in my arms and press her to my chest, and carry her to my bedroom, kicking the door shut behind us. Pam could put her damned earplugs in for all I cared, I intended to make Sookie scream; in a good way of course.

My bed was piled with blankets, a way to remember my past, and perhaps delude myself that I could still have that comforting sense of warmth about me as I slept. I laid her down atop them, though she would not let go of me as I did it, keeping our bodies only inches apart. I didn't mind being compelled to hover over her; I loved hearing her heart begin to pound, knowing that it was wholly for me. I pressed my mouth to hers again, and met her tongue searching for mine. She arched her back to press her chest against me even as my hands pushed the straps at her shoulders aside, and my fingers delved underneath the lace.

Her body was hot and she quivered as I brushed my fingertips over her breasts, delicately tracing the swells and teasing her as she cried out very softly, closing her eyes.

"Watch me." I asked her, wanting her to see me, wanting selfishly to know that it was only I in her mind. But of course, who else could it have been? Not that I had thought of that at the time, I was well distracted. Lazily she opened them again as I brought my mouth down over her nipples in turn, suckling them and swirling my tongue over them till they stood for me, even as I ground my hips against hers, rod hard and desperate, straining against my trousers.

"I want you Eric." She repeated between caught breaths; words that only fueled my desires. My hand went to the hem of her gown, pulling it upwards to where her hands could take it, and pull the river of satin over her head to cast it away.

My god she was beautiful, lying on my bed, perfect curves, skin so perfect, not white like mine, but porcelain, the summer's tan faded to a healthy glow offset by the darkened circles at the center of her breasts, and the blush of arousal. I bent again to kiss her and she pulled my hips to her again, tugging at the waistband of my pants. In a swift blur I had the buttons undone and was pushing them off my legs, freeing my erection to brush against her warmth. Her whole body trembled as I touched her.

It took too much conscious thought to really hover, so I leaned on my bent left arm and ran my right hand down the side of her body, curving inwards as I reached her hips, following the gentle slope downwards to between her legs. Her muscles, at first relaxed, tensed to electric arousal as I drew my fingers across her most intimate places, and I could not help but moan just a little as well at the state of her; hot and so obviously ready for me. I took the time to run my fingers in tiny circles over the center of her pleasure, prompting the most delicious noises from her, and the closing of her eyes once again. I could not blame her, succumbing to the delight. With the feel of her, and the smell of her my fangs dropped, uncontrolled by conscious thought. At the sound of the snap she opened her eyes again, just to look at me, and to smile at me, before giving herself over to me completely.

I brushed myself against her, in a long stroke, her heat tantalizing me beyond the point of being able to hold out any longer. With a careful, deliberate push I entered her. I didn't want to hurt her by being too vigorous, and I knew that if I tore her delicate skin and she was to shed blood, that the scent, and the way she felt, wrapped around me would have driven me out of my mind. She cried out, long and low, arching into me, begging me with her hips to go as deeply as I could. I was only too happy to comply.

Her arms wrapped loosely around my back, as I began to thrust against her, feeling her muscles tighten against my rod as she rocked her pelvis to take me. Her breath began to come in rasps, every note a song to my ears. And beyond it all, beyond the immediate sensations, which were heaven to me, there was something more, the cusp I had been sitting upon so precariously in regards to my memories finally tipped in my favor and I was flooded with the images, the remembered scents and feelings, and though it was as if it was the first time between us, with all the glory of the mutual discoveries, I did know finally then that I had made love to her before. I could see the bedroom, feel the patchwork quilt atop her bed against my skin, I remembered her hands on me, and her mouth and it brought such intensity to the passions I lavished on her. I bent to kiss her again, roughly that time, grinding my lips against her even as I ground my hips, and I captured her cries and her breaths with my desperate mouth. Fangs still extended her frantic dance to capture my tongue with hers, slashed both and the swirl of mingled blood was shared between our two mouths and I could do nothing but come for her, driving my body and my juices deep into her. Then it was my turn to cry out for her with an animal growl, better than Were.

The hands from around my back tightened their grasp, and I felt nails against my skin, their force pulling me closer to her body till I was nearly laid out over her, and able to feel the taut bands under her skin as much as I felt her body tighten around me further as I continued to move within her, and then I was awash with her orgasm, and the strong waves of contractions which threatened to push me over the edge a second time. She screamed my name, and with her implicit permission I sank my teeth into her neck again, this time pulling the blood from her, needing her within me, as much as I needed to be within her.


	11. Chapter 11

Hi all, sorry for the lengthy pause in publishing, busy week. Hope you enjoy, the next chapter should be soon, it's all planned out in my head as we speak. Just have to get some laptop time.

Enjoy.

Merick

Part 11

She was my little bird again, not captive in my hands, but wrapped into them none the less. Her heart had continued to race for a good many minutes, even as she fell into sleep. She hadn't spoken again, but had only kissed me softly on my lips before curling into my chest and closing her eyes. I knew I hadn't frightened her, because she remained at my side, and her breathing was even, and she did sleep, unlike me.

The memories of my time with her flooded back into my brain; not every minutiae mind you, but the important ones, like a series of little black and white vignettes, playing out for me. Her finding me on the road, running, the borrowed clothing from her brother, the feel of her nearness as I sat on the floor beside her, as she spoke with Pam, the heat of the water as I chanced to step into the shower with her, and the tender, beautiful feeling of her skin as I caressed her breasts for the first time, and teased her with my mouth. It all came to the first time I laid her down and made love to her on that Patchwork quilt. Of course there were also the memories of how I had felt, empty yet not scared. I was without my personality, yet still comfortable in the peace of mind that not having any pressing concerns gave me. In fact, it was a pleasant respite as I recalled, not having the weight of my office and responsibilities directing me. And of course I remembered the offer I had made her, to give up everything just to remain with her. It was that statement that was truly robbing me of my sleep.

In any other situation having heard myself make such an offer would have brought bile to my throat. My entire life, as human and as a vampire had been based on experiences grooming me to be a leader of men, not someone who would throw everything away for love. Every fiber of my preternatural being was assaulting me, pointing out my stupidity, my weakness, and looking out into the dark of my room brought no respite. But looking down at Sookie, and listening to the quiet breaths that made her chest rise and fall, in my arms, and in my bed, I could almost understand why I had made the offer. And it wasn't such a distasteful thing, as long as she was beside me. Her measured movements, and the view of the puncture marks on her neck, which brought to mind the more recent events helped to calm me, and sometime after noon by my reckoning, I did finally drift off to sleep, my face buried in her hair so that the scent of her stayed with me, even if I wasn't exactly breathing it in.

When I woke I was alone, I'd been so exhausted I hadn't even felt her leave my bed. I lay there, staring up at the ceiling again, wondering about all the memories that had returned, and wondering about how much I should share, how much wouldn't hurt her. I had come to no conclusions about what I might have done to cause her reluctance to share the events with me; certainly nothing concrete and I was well past the stage of berating myself over unknowns, it was counterproductive. Besides, I had no idea what she might remember after our lovemaking.

I could hear the crackling of the fireplace in the main room, and when I listened closely I could even hear her heartbeat, so at least I knew she hadn't fled, whatever she did or didn't remember. I rose, pulled on a pair of silk pants and went out to see her, I'll admit to some curiosity as I did so. I hadn't exactly expected to find her in the way I did.

She was curled up on the corner of the couch, the little television was on, but the sound was off. It looked like CNN; she wasn't really paying attention to it anyways. Her eyes were fixed on something she was holding in her hand. Before I noticed what that was I recognized what she was wearing; the shirt I had cast off the day before in the bathroom. Seeing her there, legs tucked up under her body, in my shirt made me so very happy. I paused before speaking to her, just enjoying the sight of my lover.

"Good Evening Sookie." She'd known I was there, I'd made no secret of my approach, perhaps I should have noted the fact that she hadn't turned her face to look at me as I had entered the room, but I hadn't: an unusual error on my part. When she did I could see the tear streaks, and I could see that it was her cell phone she was clutching, its little lighted screen casting an odd blue glow against her arms.

"Hi Eric." Her voice wasn't bubbly, it wasn't soft or comfortable, it was broken.

"What's happened Sookie?" I sat beside her, filled with concern, and put my arm over her shoulders. She did not pull away; in fact she sort of collapsed into me. I took that as a good sign, in an odd sort of way.

"I've been gone for three days Eric." She shook the phone at me, "how important could I be to anyone? Not one missed call, not one message, doesn't anyone care that I'm gone Eric?"

"They probably think you're still away Sookie." I tried to soften it. "You've often been away for a few days in a row, working for me."

"But if I was going to see someone, wouldn't they be worried about me? Worried that I hadn't arrived?"

"Sookie." I hated that she was torturing herself but I was wary of admonishing her.

"But I think that I wasn't going to see someone else Eric. I was coming to see you."

"You know that for certain Sookie?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense Eric." She finally looked away from the empty screen and up at me. "You're the only one that cares about me. I'm so glad that whoever it was who did this to me, at least gave me you to hold onto."

"So am I." I whispered to her chancing to kiss her forehead again.

"We've made love before." She dropped that bombshell on me almost matter-of-factly, it didn't matter that I already knew it.

"I know." I answered.

She finally smiled at me. "You've gotten your memories back?"

"Hard not to, being with you again Sookie."

"I'm glad."

"Have you remembered anything?"

"Just the touch of your body." A blush rose in her face that threatened to raise the blood lust in me. "Everything else is still a fog."

"It will come back." I stroked her hair. I could hear the beating heart in her chest.

"Your strength is so important to me right now Eric, since I have no one else."

"You will always have me Sookie."

"Oh God I hope so."

"Let me get you something." I pulled my arm away from her shoulders, reluctantly, but with purpose. Going to my desk I pulled open a few drawers until I found what I was searching for. I returned; a small leather bound book in my hands.

"What is it?"

"It's a journal Sookie. I want you to write down everything that happens to you, go back to the moment you woke up in Fangtasia, and write everything from there."

"Okay?" She seemed hesitant.

"I promise, if you forget this time with me, here, that I will tell you everything, but I will not be able to tell you everything you were feeling. And you might not believe me. But maybe if you see your own handwriting it will help?"

"Thank you." She took the book from me and clutched it to her chest.

"I don't want you to forget me Sookie." It was the truth. Whatever had happened before, whatever had brought her fear of me to board, I wanted her to know that once, just once, she had found something redeeming in me. I knew I didn't want to lose her, not to a damned witch's spell.

"I want to remember Eric, but I don't want to lose this either." And with that she turned in my arms so that her body was facing me, and, still clutching the book in one hand, she pushed against me, to guide me back onto the cushions of the couch. I was beyond willing to do whatever she asked of me then. "I don't ever want to forget this." She threw a leg over my waist, which forced the shirt she was wearing, my shirt, up a little higher on her thighs. I could feel the heat from her body bringing mine to life. The book dropped to the floor as her hands found other pursuits.


	12. Chapter 12

Okay, one more mushy, sentimental scene before we get back to powerful, vampire Eric. Sigh, I just had to do him, oops, I mean, it, the scene, yes really,…

Love Merick

Part 12

Warm fingers trailed over my chest, tracing lines of muscle as carefully as if she were sculpting me from clay; which in a way, was exactly what she was doing, creating something from nothing, creating memories from the ether. I watched her. Her hands, colored vessels painted just under skin, throbbing with the life that sustained me. Her face, serene but focused on seeing every part of me, on committing it to her thoughts, and hopefully to her pages once we were spent. Her body, the rise and fall of her chest, breasts caressing the silk weave of the shirt, the pulsing at her throat, even the bruises around my fang marks, something I had not had time to heal her from yet. I felt her hips begin to grind tiny circles against me, provoking the stiffened response of my maleness, and my own dance against her.

Her hands came to my waist, and grasped the ties of the lounge pants I had pulled on to cover myself. Normally I did not have company, so walking about my rooms naked was the norm for me. Pam had bought them for me, insisting that I should not walk around as a heathen; that I was above that now. I disagreed with her, about the heathen part, I didn't feel I needed to be above any part of my true nature, but that is a tangent to the story I don't need to get into.

As she wound her fingers into the silken ropes she leaned down over me, and while kissing me, pushed the waistband down as far as her reach would allow. I finished the task, without ever letting her lips part from mine. She remained, hovering over me that time, her breasts touching my chest like feathers, and then she rocked back, taking the length of me into her body as she sat upright, again with a long, drawn out moan of satisfaction. Gods, her body was hot, and tight wrapped around me as it was. I reached up to her, to undo the buttons on the shirt, from the collar to the tails so that it fell open as she began to work herself over me, and I was able to see the hint of her perfect breasts, her flat abdomen, and her sex, the heat between her legs that engulfed me. I loved watching her take me.

I placed my hands on her hips, not to guide her, but to guide myself as I met her thrusts. Her skin was so soft, and yet felt so strong as she led our dance. I was happy to yield to her, and absolutely enchanted by watching where our bodies met, and how our skin glistened with the arousal from us both. She made love to me slowly, her cries quiet, just like mine, even the building of the tensions seemed peaceful and natural, and when she came for me I watched her whole body simply pause, and then tremble in a wave like the ocean's tides. Her body's convulsions pulled my climax from me in much the same complete manner, and all I wished to do was hold her body close to me, so as not to lose the connection we had in that moment.

We lay on the couch, her body on top of mine, skin pressed to mine, so much so that I feared giving her a chill. But the fireplace in the room made up for the warmth that was slowly draining away from my body after our activities. So I simply clutched her close to me, and planted kisses on her face while she traced designs on my chest.

"Am I a good person Eric?"

I had to laugh, mostly because of how absurd the question was, but of course I knew most everything about her and all she was clinging to was a silent phone.

"I want to tell you something Sookie, a few things I guess, about how wonderful and generous a soul you are."

"I could use something like that."

"I've told you of when you took me in to your home, and protected me?"

"Yes."

"It was more than that Sookie. You rescued me, found me running down a country road on your way home, without any sense of who I was or where I was. But you convinced me that you were my friend, and that I was safe with you, and you took me home. You found me clothing, and treated me as a guest. And you let me into your heart, and into your bed, you looked past everything I had ever done to see the person I was right then."

"You keep saying how terrible a person you were Eric, but I don't believe it."

"Well I thank you for that, but I have had to be very ruthless in my time. I have hurt people and killed people before."

"But not senselessly Eric."

She could not have known that but the conviction in her words gave me great comfort. And she was right. Though my definitions of justifiable homicide likely differed from hers; and not to ascribe blame, but I was born into a society of war, and died only to be reborn in another battle. But despite that I had never killed for sport, or knowingly harmed an innocent. I nodded at her, feeling warm that she could believe me so innocent and good; qualities I was trying to credit to her.

"There is another time, something you did for me that will stay with me forever, and for a vampire that is a terribly long time." I curved up the right side of my mouth in a little smirk at my joke. For her part she kissed me again.

I did not know how much she knew of vampiric nature, what we had released to the media when we revealed ourselves was but the tip of a very deep iceberg of a culture that had existed for millennia. I made the assumption that she knew little more than the press releases, and ignored the claims of the fanatics.

"There was a person who was very important to me. His name was Godric."

"Was?"

"He is gone now. Godric was my maker; the vampire who turned me. My connection to him was very deep, as it is between all vampires and their children." She nodded.

"We believed that he had been kidnapped and imprisoned by a radical group that meant to kill him. I needed to go and find him, and you offered to accompany me, knowing that you, as a human, might be able to find out where the group was keeping him, by pretending to be interested in joining their ranks." I hesitated to call it a church, not knowing how much Sookie might know of the Fellowship of the Sun, though I suspected it was very little. "It was a dangerous thing you undertook, more dangerous than we could have realized at the time since a spy betrayed you."

"Oh?"

"You were taken captive, but through the means of Godric and myself you were freed."

"Not by Bill?"

"No, he was unable to come to you." I did not intend to get into that story, or Lorena, not then. Selfishly this was my moment, mine and Sookie's.

"Oh."

"You fought in that church to help free me, and even your brother stepped up to assist us. Godric's words, which made clear the true reason he had allowed himself to be taken, ensured that we were all able to leave without loss of life."

"He let himself be kidnapped?" I loved how quick Sookie was to understand my words, I had never doubted her intelligence, well except perhaps when she had clung to Bill for so long in the face of mounting evidence of his duplicity. "Why Eric? If he knew they were going to kill him?"

"I believe it was precisely that knowledge that drove him to do as he did. If you will pardon the comparison, I believe that he saw himself as a martyr, not unlike Christ himself, hoping to take the sins of all vampires on his shoulders as they destroyed him."

"He wanted his sacrifice to bring an end to the hatred?" She was so intelligent, and my admiration for her grew even further.

"He wanted the fanatics to see that we were not all about violence, just as all humans are not violent and should not be judged by the few murderers among you. He wanted change, and I think we all might have believed that we had taken a step, however small in that direction until some of the people from the group arrived at Godric's home, where we were all celebrating his return and tried to blow us all up with a martyr's vest, peppered with silver shrapnel." She covered her mouth in horror.

"But that wasn't how he passed, was it Eric?" She spoke through her fingers, so I couldn't see her mouth, but I could see her eyes, and there was a spark of something in them, something very serious.

"No, it wasn't Sookie." I met her gaze, as if I could somehow see beyond those orbs into her mind.

"Tell me?"

"He took his own life, as only a vampire can. He was so disappointed with the events at his home, after hoping that he had made some kind of headway towards our absolution, towards his absolution, he could not find the will to continue. He was tired, and I believe he hoped that he might find some kind of personal peace within his own oblivion. He waited for the sunrise. With you at his side."

"Not you?"

"He would not allow it, and I loved him too much to defy his last request of me. He wished me to go on, I think he wished for me to find the peace he had sought."

"He did." Again her cryptic response confused me, but sparked a measure of hope.

"You stood with him when I could not, so he was not alone when his end came. I will be forever in your debt for that Sookie. I could not have born the memory of my maker alone in those final moments, it would have killed me."

She stopped looking at me, and wrinkled her brow. Her face was pointed at the still silent television, though I knew she was not watching it, she seemed miles away.

"He was very young." She said. I misunderstood at first.

"He was over two thousand years old."

"But he turned when he was a child, not yet grown to manhood?"

"Correct, he never knew his mortal age, but I would have put it at no more than eighteen."

"And his face, his eyes were deep, almond shaped, and his mouth, full? Yes?"

"Yes." I drew out the word as I stared at her.

"And his hair, brown, short, but cut oddly, roughly, framing his face in straight strands?"

"Sookie? Do you remember him?"

Then she looked at me, "I don't know Eric. I think maybe I might be getting it from you."

"But you can't read me."

"I've had your blood, maybe that makes a difference?"

Her reasoning was not without merit, the first time she had had my blood had been that night, the night of the suicide bombing. I shuddered as I remembered how I had ticked her into it, and felt slightly ashamed of myself just then; as much as I had desired that she know me, and see the true me by taking it.

"What else do you 'see' Sookie?"

"He was dressed in white." She smiled, "And he didn't have any shoes on. He looked so peaceful. He asked me to look after you when he was gone, that you really were worth my attentions. He asked me about God, wondering if God would forgive his actions as a vampire or if he would be punished? I told him that God would forgive him, that he forgives anyone who comes to him to ask. It made him happy Eric. And he loved that I stayed there with him, a human. He was surprised that I could cry for him."

"You cried for him?"

"I did. It was all peaceful for him Eric, even beautiful."

"Sookie?"

"Yes?"

"I did not know those things, you could not have pulled them from my mind no matter how good a telepath you are. You have remembered him."

"You cried as well." I nodded, "blood tears, you wanted to die with him."

"I did."

"I am glad you didn't."

"I am glad you stayed with him." I felt the tears welling again in my eyes, as much for the memory of my lost maker, as for the scrap of memory that Sookie had regained. "And I am so happy you can remember him. For his people, as well as for mine, if your name and deeds could live on it would be as if you had never passed. I am honored that he has come to you."

"Oh Eric." She leaned forward and kissed me, and then wiped the tears away from my eyes.

"Take the blood." I whispered. She cocked her head at me strangely. "It will help you heal." I ran two careful fingertips over the bruise on her neck. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's all right Eric." She smiled that same soft, tenderhearted smile and then put the fingertips into her mouth.

"It may not be enough Sookie, if you will permit me?" She nodded. I dropped my fangs and brought my thumb to one, impaling it and watching the pearl of blood well to the surface of my skin. I brought it to her lips, and closed my eyes as she took it into her mouth. I could not help but tremble as she drew from the wound and traced her tongue around it.

"Gods, Sookie." Her hands caressed mine and I felt her push her body against me again. "I need you." I pulled my hand from her grasp and her mouth and swung her up into my arms. I made love to her again in my bedroom, remembering how much I had loved her in that moment on the roof.


	13. Chapter 13

Bring on the demons.

Once again, I don't own these characters, I'm just taking them out to play.

Part 13

We were lying in bed still, kind of silently touching each other, not thinking, at least on my part about much else but the small universe that was my bedroom. There was a chime from the other room, and Sookie looked at me, wide eyed.

"I think your phone is ringing."

"Oh God."

"Shall I go and get it?" It rang a second time. She nodded and I flashed out to pick it up from the table she'd left it on. I returned before the third ring and tried to hand it to her. She shied away from it.

"You answer it." She begged. I shrugged and did just that. I had to admit a curiosity, especially after the conversation we'd just had. If Alcide Herveaux had been on the other end of the line I don't honestly know what I would have said to him, least ways in front of Sookie.

"Hello?"

"Oh, Mr. Northman, did I call the wrong number, I thought this was Sookie's phone?" It was Diantha.

"Hello Diantha." I smiled over at Sookie, she seemed quite relieved that the speaker was someone she knew, not someone she was supposed to know. I was relieved too.

"Are you and Sookie coming to the club tonight?"

"Yes, I think we will." I did need to get back, I hadn't had much of a presence there for a few nights, and I felt as though I should. And I didn't want Pam to have something else to criticize me about.

"Good, my Uncle has given me a few things to deliver to you, and I thought Sookie and I could have a bite and a drink together again?"

"I'm sure she would enjoy that. We'll see you in an hour or so."

I clicked off the phone and relayed to Sookie that we were expected at the club. She seemed happy with that, and hungry, so the offer of dinner was appreciated. I was still not used to her need to eat regularly, having been away from the duty for so long myself. I apologized, again, and we got dressed, slowly.

Pam was waiting in pink Channel in my office, Diantha was with her when we arrived, though she seemed happy to leave, for some reason she didn't much care for demons, even semi ones. Diantha threw her arms around Sookie as if she hadn't seen her for weeks, even though it had only been a day. It could have been weeks with everything that had happened. After hugging Sookie she handed me a large manila envelope, then returned to completely ignoring me and fussing over Sookie.

"Sookie, if we're going to go out to the club you can't wear that." She referred to the perfectly lovely dress Sookie had put on. It was pink, brighter than Pam's, with little cap sleeves and a ruffle at the neckline. I thought she looked beautiful, especially with her hair still worn long, just curling around her shoulders. Apparently I was wrong. "Good thing I went shopping first." Diantha held up another bag, which I hadn't noticed and thrust it into Sookie's hands, pushing her out the office door and into the adjacent private bathroom. "Put that on!" She hollered behind herself as she came back to the office.

"Diantha?" I looked at her crosswise as another bag appeared and she began clearing off my coffee table to set out Styrofoam containers. I bit my tongue as she re-arranged my things. She continued speaking to me, expecting me to follow her train of thought, which was somewhat scattered.

"Well where better to start practicing her telepathy but here Mr. Northman? My Uncle figures someone around here must be involved, so she can start eavesdropping on the crowd here. If she doesn't want everyone staring at her like she's going to the mall shopping, she has to wear something more 'club-like'." I was pretty certain I didn't like the sound of that. "Whoever did this has got to be interested in how things are going. And since she doesn't go out anywhere else, they'd have to come here to see her. She needs to look like she fits in."

I hated that Diantha made sense right then, I hated it more when I saw what she'd brought Sookie to wear. Considering what Diantha was wearing I shouldn't have been surprised.

I think they call them hankie tops, probably because there isn't much more fabric to them than in a proper handkerchief. Held together by spaghetti straps I wasn't even completely certain how Sookie had gotten it tied up as she spun in front of me revealing her bare back and the swells of her beautiful breasts. She did look enticing and sexy, and I wanted her so much right then, but I knew that I wouldn't be the only one with feelings of lust to see her that way. I wondered if my wide eyes conveyed the approval she was looking for? The top was sparkling turquoise, which was a great color against her hair, but if Diantha hadn't wanted her to stick out I think she'd chosen the wrong outfit. Especially paired with the black leather skirt.

"Oh God you look so HOT Sookie!" The semi-demon seemed quite pleased at her work. "Doesn't she look hot Mr. Northman?"

She had such a hopeful smile on her face looking at me I couldn't say anything negative. Sookie that was, not Diantha.

"You're beautiful Sookie."

Little tears began to glisten in her eyes as I spoke it. I wanted to pull her into my arms, but I didn't dare, afraid I might not let her leave them.

"I'm just going to go out to check on the club and then I'll be back to read these papers." I was still clutching the envelope from Mr. Cataliades, my knuckles turning white as I did so. "Diantha? A word?" She stepped out into the hallway with me as I saw Sookie begin to open up the take out containers Diantha had kindly brought.

I was quite clear when I spoke to her through a set jaw, "Don't let anyone near her Diantha."

"Why Mr. Northman." She looked at me trying to be cute, which is not easy for a semi-demon dressed in a red hankie shirt and skintight leather pants. "The way you're carrying on, I'd almost think you were jealous." I grabbed her upper arm quite tightly, I knew it wasn't hurting her, it was just to make a point.

"I am." Then I walked away from her. I'd thank her for the envelope and Sookie's dinner later.

I took a quick tour around the club, checking behind the bar to see to the stocks, and with the DJ to see about the equipment. Menial tasks I could have left to Pam, but I needed to calm down, and occupying my mind with something as banal as how many bottles of rum we had was helpful. I wasted a good half hour and then returned to my office, which still smelled of chicken. I didn't mind. Sookie looked happy and satisfied.

Sitting at my desk I took the contents of the envelope out none too delicately. I spread the papers out, glanced up at the girls periodically who were chatting about Sookie's powers. Diantha seemed intent on getting Sookie to 'read my mind' as she put it. Then she would break down giggling no matter what Sookie said. I didn't understand women, or at least Diantha, apparently. I started reading through the papers slowly, intent on not missing any points. It would seem that my good legal friend had developed a taste for Forensic Analysis as the first sheet I settled my eyes on was a Mass Spectrometer report which outlined the contents of the powder. The chemical names meant very little to me, but when the operator broke them down to the same herbs as Papa B had described; valerian, poppy and skullcap, my respect for him grew, Papa B that was. The analysis didn't point out grave dirt; how could it, or Were blood, but did mention the sub-components of Hemoglobin specifically. Perhaps Werewolves had more iron in their blood, I suppose they had tasted a little different, but I hadn't been drinking for fun then. I put that report aside.

The next page was of more use. It was a map of Louisiana, with red markers of known covens. I was a little shocked to see so few to be honest. Only one in New Orleans, one in Baton Rouge and a third, identified as much smaller, in Lafayette. Since Hallow's coven had gone down under the force of the Weres and Vampires, no one had made further incursions. I suppose that didn't surprise me. They'd left behind fear and wariness in the wake of their attempted coup. Trying to force the peaceful Wiccans into their ranks had been a bad move, and had only made them more enemies; though with the vamps and weres gunning for you, what were a few wiccans? I don't really know very much about wiccans, I just always got the impression that they were a helpful bunch, not about dark spells and curses, more about nature. Perhaps one day I'd have the opportunity to ask one?

It was comforting to know that our little corner of the state was still clear. A few other papers in the stack revealed minimal intelligence, certainly no obvious troop movements, as it were, and no overt threats against any other vampires. The whole community seemed to be lying low, which to me said that the action taken against Sookie was personal, probably not the work of a large group, one maybe two people with an axe to grind against me. Sadly that revelation didn't narrow the field of suspects too much. Anyone might have been able to hire a witch to do the job. I needed more answers, and sadly, the only way it seemed I was going to get them was if someone walked into Fangtasia and broadcast their involvement, or if someone tried something else and I managed to catch them at it. Of course, if I could have just restored Sookie's memories, she might have been able to provide her own clues.

A handwritten note, also enclosed with the papers indicated that Mr. Cataliades was still working on finding someone to break the spell, and that I should not lose hope as he had a great many connections. Well I had some of my own and I fancied using them. A quick call to Papa B's shop and we had a meeting set for the next night, with Sookie in attendance. Papa B said he would have a good friend there who would be sure to be able to help Sookie in some way. My confidence in the man being so strong, I felt a little better; certainly better than waiting on a lawyer to sort out things. I looked over at Sookie. It was wonderful to see her smiling. I could hear the music beginning in the club and I gathered up the papers and put them away in my desk. Diantha and Sookie made their way out, after Diantha added some makeup to them both, which I didn't think either of them needed. I waited another five minutes and then took my favorite vantage point, up on the dais, on the ridiculous chair to survey my domain in full vampire glory. People came to Fangtasia to see the vampires, as a businessman I had to give them what they wanted. Pam had changed out of her Channel as well, choosing the gothic black for the night. Thankfully no one expected the damn opera cloaks, there were certain things that I just wouldn't permit in my club; opera cloaks and posers to think of two. I just hated the humans who wore those snap on fangs when they came out. It was insulting. But, I digress.

They were sitting at the bar, I could have overheard their conversation if I had tried, but I didn't, at least not while they were alone. Arthur was attending to them, and bringing them drinks, stopping to chat in a friendly kind of manner as his duties allowed. Though the lights were dimmed, as club goers generally wanted, I had no problem watching everyone move about, and watching as Sookie and Diantha got up on the dance floor together. I noticed that Arthur put both their drinks behind the bar as they did so. I appreciated that and considered giving him a raise. He glanced at me, and I nodded my thanks. I had no intention of anyone slipping anything in either of these girls' drinks. Not that that had ever been a problem at Fangtasia, perhaps it was my watchful presence that kept those particular predilections at bay.

Sookie certainly moved well, and I enjoyed watching her, as did a number of other patrons. I tried very hard to put them out of my mind and just concentrate on her and to relieve my new found memories of the first times we had shared intimacy. One might believe that my wallowing in them would make me soft and weak, just the opposite I thought, I felt even more strongly that I would protect her, no matter the cost. When they went back to the bar a couple of men followed them, but I held my ground, even though I was gritting my teeth a little. Okay, the fangs dropped too. I don't like feeling jealous. I saw Sookie touch one on the hand, which disturbed me until I saw what she was doing. She was reading him; the physical contact seemed to help her and she smiled politely at him, but turned back to Arthur to retrieve her drink, then looked up at me and smiled brilliantly. I returned the smile.

The club grew more crowded and the girls drew more and more attention, which kept me on edge. Normally I scanned the whole place with my disinterested yet smoldering look, but I kept my eyes on strangers and on Sookie with a far more menacing glare than normal; at least until Pam tapped me on the shoulder.

"Get up."

"Why?" I snarled at her.

"You're scaring people."

Damn, not good for business if the patrons think you are going to eat them.

"Fine." I stood up.

"Besides, you have a call."

She could have said that in the first place without insulting me, but I suppose she was just doing her job, looking out for me and for the club.

"Yes? Hello?" I held the receiver to my ear listening for the voice on the other end.

"Mr. Northman?"

"Yes."

"It's Gladiola."

It dawned on me then that in fact Diantha had been flying solo that night, and the evening before, since the two sisters were never far apart I grew curious.

"Yes Gladiola?"

"I'm out at Sookie's house. Uncle asked me to watch it while Diantha watched Sookie."

Ah, Mr. Cataliades, his nieces certainly made it possible to be in two places at once.

"Is there a problem?"

"Someone was poking around just now." I stopped hearing anything but her voice, and pushed every other concern out of my mind.

"Did you recognize who?" I was ready for the fight.

"Another Vampire. But I don't know him."

"Is he still there?"

"He's headed back across the woods, shall I follow him Mr. Northman?"

"Please. I shall be there directly."

I hated leaving Sookie, but if someone was lurking around her house I needed to know who it was; not that I didn't have my suspicions. She would be safe in the club, with Diantha and Pam to watch over her, and I knew if I told her before leaving that she would insist on accompanying me. I was not prepared to put her in harms way, or argue with her, though she was beautiful when she argued.

I told Pam I was leaving, with few other details, and outside the club, out of the glare of the spotlights in the parking lot I took to the sky. Motivated as I was I moved quickly, and arriving at Sookie's it was not difficult to track Gladiola. I met up with her in the Cemetery; she seemed to sense my arrival, and was waiting for me by one of the older headstones. I didn't bother to look at the name on it.

The antithesis of her sister in dress she was wearing a black bodysuit, perhaps more suited to a ninja warrior than anything else I could think of at the time. She certainly was on the hunt, and I was more than glad that she was on my side when I saw the gleam of the polished blade in the scabbard on her thigh, and the hilt of the one slung across her back. Her black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, not unlike the one Sookie used to wear. Her eyes had a sparkle of someone running on adrenalin, and liking it. She smiled at me in a grin just a little too wide for a human.

"Where is he?" I asked, very quietly, so only she could hear.

"There is a house close by, he retreated to there."

Suspicions confirmed, it had been Bill Compton.

"Did he see you?"

"Of course not."

"Has he been the only creature around the house this evening?"

"He has, I found no other scents."

"Gladiola, I am in your debt. I will go and talk to this person and discover why he has felt the need to spy on the house and presumably Sookie."

"Did you wish for me to come with you?"

"Perhaps you could stay close, just in case."

She nodded and fell in step behind me. I knew I would not need her to deal with Bill Compton, but if Bill was now in league with the Witches I preferred to have backup. I didn't know if you could cast a spell on a demon, but I somehow doubted it. Besides, she looked as if she wanted to kill something, and Bill was as good a target as any, and then I would be able to look Sookie in the eye and honestly say that I hadn't done it. Semantics, I know, but the truth, if Sookie even cared.

We proceeded to the house.


	14. Chapter 14

Another snapshot for you. Hope you enjoy.

Merick

Part 14

I couldn't recall the last time I'd been to Bill Compton's home. I didn't tend to remember things that I saw as unimportant. After living a thousand years one had to learn to be selective with these things. I knew that I certainly didn't walk him home the night Sookie had thrown us both out, the night she'd broken up with Bill for good. So, safe to say it had been awhile.

I could have just barged in, and I did think about it for a moment, but then decided on simply knocking at the door and waiting to see what happened, I had no idea who else might be inside and if his witch friends, assuming the worst of course, were there I was not ready have another curse thrown at me; I wouldn't be much use to anyone then.

Jessica answered, peering through the half open door.

"Eric?" She was genuinely surprised to see me.

"Jessica. Is Bill home?"

"Sure, come on in, I'll fetch him." Fortunately Jessica was still my friend it seemed, I doubt Bill had bothered to tell her about his attempt to encase me in concrete. She had no reason to be suspicious of my visit, I was still the sheriff and quite entitled to visit any Vampire who lived in my area.

Gladiola had stayed just hidden away beside the porch, out of view of the house's occupants; I glanced back to see her before stepping through the door that Jessica opened wide for me. She was going to track around Bill's and search for any familiar scents, such as those she had found at Sookie's the first time she and her sister had come out. Then she was going to wait for me on the porch, in case I had need of her special talents; and those blades.

I closed the door behind myself as I stepped into the parlor. Jessica spoke to me, without looking backwards at me as she mounted the first step of the staircase going up.

"What brings you back to Bon Temps Eric?"

I never got the chance to answer her, as Bill came down the stairs, stopping to meet the pale redhead and to give her a little smile.

"Yes Eric, what does bring you out here?" I had forgotten how annoying that drawl was to me.

"Just a few questions for you Bill." I made my voice sound all business-like, I didn't want to start out my questioning as an adversary, if he got his guard up too early it would be so much more difficult to get answers.

"Yes?" He joined me in the parlor, not offering me a seat, but standing, just out of my arm's reach, staring at me. Apparently he still held the animosity of our last encounter in his heart; at least the last encounter I could remember, perhaps I had insulted him and his pride at another occasion?

"I've had reports of some strange activity around Bon Temps again Bill. Have you or Jessica come across anything?"

"Do you mean besides the shifters, weres, maenads and psychotic vampires?"

"Funny." I answered, though I didn't really think so.

"Of late, no I haven't seen anything."

"And what about you Bill, what have you been busying yourself with these last few months?"

"I don't know that my affairs are any of your concern Eric." He looked at me with his square jaw, slightly cocked in defiance. I could see that he wasn't going to be volunteering anything, not that I had expected he would.

"Actually, your business is my business Bill, when it has to do with other supernaturals in my area. In case you have forgotten, I am still the sheriff here."

"No, I hadn't forgotten."

"And what about Sookie, Bill? Have you been by to see her recently?" The mention of her name made him grit his teeth; perhaps it was a chink in his armor?

"Again, I don't think that is any of your business Eric. But if it will make you leave faster I will answer it. No. I haven't seen Sookie."

"So you haven't been skulking around her house at night, tonight?"

"Why do you ask? Did she call you?"

I had him.

"I've spoken with Sookie recently, yes."

"Then you know where she is?" He sounded a little desperate, and so I remained silent, giving him more rope, by which I hoped he'd hang himself. "I did go by her house tonight, she wasn't there, and Jessica has said she hasn't been at work for days." His tone of voice was unsettling, as if he really didn't know what had happened to her.

"She is with me."

"She's with you!" His tone of southern indignation was nothing compared to the roar I felt simmering in my chest just having to look at him again, but I held it back. "What has happened to her?"

"Rest assured she is safe." I baited him.

"What have you done to her?"

"I have done nothing to her, I would never hurt her Bill." I emphasized the 'I', just for effect.

"You would never hurt her? You have a short memory Eric!" I let him shout for a moment. "You tricked her into taking your blood, to save you from silver poisoning! You locked her in your basement against her will to use her as bait to catch Russell Edgington! For all I know you have her held captive now!"

"I never lied about loving her Bill! I never made her love me so I could sell her to my Queen for her favors! I never abandoned her or came close to killing her! I have always protected her, even if she or you did not understand my methods!" I roared at him like the Viking Warrior I been bred to be. My fangs dropped as his did, and with his own, sadly pitiful roar he dove at me, it was nothing to side step him and whirl to meet him again, snarling, ready for him to make the first move so that I could defend myself.

"Bill! Stop it!" Jessica had come running back down the stairs.

Ah, the scream of reason, from Jessica's lips, concerned, as she rightly needed to be, about her maker's survival. If he had made contact with me, I would have killed him; or at least incapacitated him; I did still need information from him after all. Bill rightly listened to his child, and hissed at me like a snake. I raised my eyebrows at the sad attempt to strike fear into my soul.

"If I discover that you have done anything to bring harm to Sookie Bill, rest assured, I will return and I will make you rue the day you were made vampire."

"I already do Eric, you can do nothing else to hurt me! I have lost everything because of you!"

Oh, he was quite wrong about that.

"Good bye Jessica." I offered her the courtesy. "Keep an eye out for witches will you little one? Even if they come into your own house." I glared at Bill.

I left, and met up with Gladiola who was waiting for me just where I had last seen her.

"Did you find anything around the house?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"Not a trace of the scents we found around Sookie's house earlier." I was somewhat disappointed in that news, wanting an excuse to go back and confront Bill with something tangible. But the absence of direct evidence didn't absolve him yet, not in my estimation.

"But I did find a disturbed grave, it might be the source of the grave dirt that was in the powder." Gladiola continued.

"Show me."

We walked quickly amongst the tombstones, so many so old and weather beaten that the names were hardly visible or even the dates, until we reached the one that Gladiola wanted to show me. It was much newer, but was beside one that had seen many more years of weathering; I knew the name, if not the woman buried there, Adele Hale Stackhouse. Fucking witches!

Gladiola insisted that she would stay in Bon Temps and keep watch. I wanted to get back to Shreveport, no, I needed to get back to Shreveport. Had I been human, I think I would have wanted to throw up just then. Not only had I found out that whomever had created the damn powder had used the grave of Sookie's beloved grandmother to do it, but I had been reminded of how I had used Sookie in the past. Not that I had totally forgotten the ways I had inserted myself into her life, and her into mine, but it was easier to feel superior when she looked at me with forgiveness for something she couldn't even remember, then when it was thrown in my face by another predator. I wanted to believe the words I had hurled at Bill, that everything I had done had been to protect her, and I did, mostly. Damn it! I took to the air, hurrying homeward.


	15. Chapter 15

Part 15

I came in the back door; I hadn't realized that so much time had passed. The parking lot was almost empty, and the dense smell of humans was well abated. I opened the door to my office and found Sookie inside, alone, writing in the journal I had so recently given her. She looked up and smiled at me, seeming a little tired.

"You left?" She asked, her voice quiet.

"I'm sorry, I had to go out for a bit, I thought that we might have found a clue or something to help." I went over to her, and sat down beside her on the couch, the one Pam had only recently laid her unconscious body on.

"Did you find anything?" I hated to dash her hopes.

"Not really. I'm sorry."

"Where did you go?"

"I went to Bon Temps."

"Really?" She seemed more interested then.

"I had to speak to Bill Compton." I had made up my mind on the flight back home that I was going to be honest with her; I wasn't giving Bill anything he could use against me, because I was certain he would be coming to see Sookie himself, and soon.

"Why?"

"Gladiola found him lurking around your house. I wanted to know why. So I went to ask him."

"What did he say?"

"Not much. Only that he was just checking up on you, and that he had no knowledge of your whereabouts, or of any other people around your home."

"So, do you think he was involved?"

"I don't know Sookie. I would like to say yes, because then it would be very easy for me to compel him to tell me who he had cast this spell on you. But I don't know. He seemed genuinely surprised that something had happened to you. And," I gritted my teeth having to say it, "honestly concerned for your well being. In his generally superior, insulting sort of way."

"What does your gut tell you?"

"My gut," I smiled, "says that he had every motive to have your memory erased, because then you would not recall how he had hurt you, and he would have a chance to convince you to take him back. He is a good actor, being able to convince you that his feelings for you were genuine, even I did not know the full extent of how he intended to betray you."

"But?"

Would she always be able to read me this way? Even if she couldn't use her telepathy on me she was so aware of the subtleties of my body language and expressions.

"Gladiola found no evidence around his house of any suspicious activities; not to say that he couldn't have planned to do things elsewhere to throw anyone who might search off the track. But if he meant to pull you back to him, why would he leave you here with me? Why would he have left you unconscious in my parking lot? It doesn't make any sense. He would have wanted to be the one to rescue you."

That fact had been eating at me for hours. I hated it, because I wanted to blame Bill, but without any direct evidence, and in the face of disparate circumstances I could not bring him before a court to ask for justice and the names of his co-conspirators.

"I am sorry Sookie, I want to find an answer for you." I reached out to take her hand.

"Perhaps it will be tomorrow then Eric. Besides, I am not so unhappy right now." She held up the book in her other hand and smiled at me.

"What have you been writing Sookie?" I wanted to change the subject, even though I knew that every interaction and every conversation that we had would be tainted by the spell.

"Everything important, mostly my feelings since I woke up. Just like you told me to do. Like the first time I kissed you." She reached out and ran her fingers over my lips; I remained motionless, focusing on the feelings of her skin on mine again. "It was so beautiful." She whispered. "When you made love to me, I felt like the only woman in the world right then, the only one in your heart."

"You are." I whispered back, muffled by the fingertips that I kissed.

"Even when you just let me sleep beside you, when I was so frightened, those feelings, those memories are so beautiful to me. I think that even if I never get anything else back, that it won't really matter, because everything about these few days has been so perfect, so honest, it doesn't matter if I ever have anything else."

"Oh gods Sookie." I pulled her to myself and crushed my mouth against hers, I felt nothing but her heat and the way it made my own body, my own soul spring to life again. It felt as though everything before her had been a procession of duties, and tasks, and now it was life. And I knew I couldn't lose this, and I knew I had to speak.

"I have to tell you things Sookie." She was panting when our kiss broke, and remained curled into my arms.

"Eric, I don't care what you did before, what kind of evil person you claim to have been. None of that matters to me."

"It matters to me Sookie, I need your forgiveness, and I need to know that you will not regret any of this."

"Then tell me Eric. Tell me everything."

I kept her hand in mine; I needed to be grounded in the feel of her steady pulse against my palm as I told her of every guilt-laden action that had been haunting me.

"The first time I met you, you alerted me to something illegal going on in my club, with enough notice that Pam and I, as well as you and Bill were able to escape without running afoul of the police. You revealed your talents to me then, without even knowing me, or having any reason to help me. I repaid your kindness by employing you to discover a thief in my midst, a task that again, nearly cost you your life." I was thankful she wasn't asking me any questions just then, I didn't want to terrify her, I wanted absolution from her.

"I was selfish, after watching you, after seeing your good heart, so willing to help others; even if the jobs you did for me were undertaken to garner my help for your friends. I wanted you with me, not with Bill. I can't even say that I did it because I knew he was bad for you, though I never did trust him around you. I wanted you to see me, as I was, not as the Vampire you'd first met as Fangtasia, with the self-assured cockiness that projected the aura of being superior to everyone. I hadn't opened my self to anyone in so many centuries, but I wanted you to see the real Eric Northman. And so I tricked you into taking my blood."

"Was I angry with you?"

"You were, but not for very long as I recall, it just isn't in your nature Sookie. It was the night before Godric died." The memory was still hard for me, now because of the guilt and not just the loss. "When the suicide bomber came into his house."

"You moved in front of me, to protect me from the blast." She spoke as if from a dream, another memory had come to her.

"I did, it was my last noble act that night. The bomb was laced with silver, some of which lodged in my chest. I convinced you that you needed to draw it out of my body or I couldn't heal. You kissed the wound, and pulled the fragment out, taking some of my blood with it. But it was a lie. I would have healed despite the silver. I just wanted you to take my blood."

"But why?"

"Taking vampire blood, from the source, gives you dreams, erotic dreams of the vampire and yourself. And it gave me a connection to you, the ability to feel your emotions, and when you were afraid, and selfishly, I knew it would enable me to come to you when you were in trouble, to protect you."

"How did you know that I wasn't already dreaming of you Eric? You are very handsome."

Oh gods, not an answer of anger, but an attempt to lessen my guilt. How could she be so innocent to see the good in me before everything else?

"It was wrong."

"It was deceptive. But you wanted to protect me, and you've already told me that Bill wasn't able to then, it hasn't him who shielded me. How can I fault you for wanting to keep me safe or for wanting me to dream of you? I imagine that there have been boys I've had crushes on, whom I've wanted to have dreams of me."

I sighed; I didn't deserve someone like her.

"Was that all?"

"No, sadly. There was something else."

"Then tell me." She squeezed my hand again.

"I used you as bait; to capture a very dangerous vampire. His name was Russell Edgington, and he wanted to use your blood. I held you against your will in the basement of this building." I watched her shudder, and I wondered if this revelation might just break her, but I continued, because I wanted her to have the truth, and because I knew that if I didn't tell her the truth, that Bill would tell her, and he would paint me as the villain, when really I hadn't been.

"I never intended to give you to him, only to lure him here so that in the guise of his friend and loyal subject, I could kill him. But I took a risk with your life that I should never have taken. I do not know how I can express the deep regret that I feel for my actions."

"Why did you want to kill him?"

"He killed my human family, and I had been tracking him for centuries. I was selfish, and saw you as a means to the end I had spent my immortal life pursuing."

"Why did he want my blood?"

"There is something very special about your blood Sookie. Something I do not completely understand. But the reason you have your powers is related to something in your blood. Something amazing."

"What?"

"I am given to understand that one of your ancestors was a fairy."

Her jaw dropped, her eyes widened, and she sat speechless, staring at me.

"Your blood gives vampires the chance to walk in the sun for a short while. I had always thought it was a myth, and indeed, the tale has been embellished over the centuries. Your blood grants a measure of immunity from the sun, but no true protection."

"A fairy?" She seemed stuck on the revelation, not that I blamed her.

"I'm sorry I don't know much else."

"Bill knew it?"

"I believe it was the source of his interest in you. But as I have said, I was not in his confidence, nor was I aware of his true nature until it was too late."

"Too late for what?"

"He helped you flee from me, throwing my careful plan into disarray. I was forced to improvise, and Russell nearly killed you, desperate for the blood that would let him walk in the day. I knew the truth. I went first, I waited for him to come to me, and I handcuffed him to me with silver manacles. I was prepared to die with him in the sun, so desperate was my need to revenge my family."

"I don't know if I can blame you Eric."

"You should. But again, you came to my rescue, you dragged me back inside so I wouldn't burn. You even rescued Russell."

"Why on earth would I have done that?"

"I asked you to. Godric wanted me to forgive him, and end the hate. I wanted him to suffer."

"Eric." Her voice accused me of nothing, and a gentle hand on my cheek gave me what I had been seeking, even without the words.

"I am a monster Sookie." I felt the blood tears beginning again, I made no move to stop them flowing. "I am sorry."

"I forgive you. All that matters is that we are together now." I looked at her, hoping my countenance did not look horrible from the trails of blood down my cheeks. She smiled and touched my face again.

I kissed her. If I had needed to breathe I would have pulled the very air from her lungs in my desire of her. My hands wrapped around her, and pulled her into my lap, the leather skirt riding up so that I felt the heat of her body against mine. I wanted her more desperately than I had ever wanted anything, even the death of Russell Edgington. She was my salvation right then, the absolution for every sin. And still I did not understand how.

"Why Sookie, how can you just forgive me?"

Again she smiled, and reached down to pick up the fallen journal, pressing it into my hands.

"Read it."

I opened the first page and began.

'I don't remember anything before, I can't even say it was blackness because I wasn't aware of anything until I heard my name, and I don't know that I recognized it as such. It was the voice, the voice that pulled me out of the nothingness. It was strong, it was familiar, and it held a comfort that almost commanded me to open my eyes. I knew nothing, I still know so little, but I know one thing. Eric Northman is my lifeline. He has answered every question I have asked of him, he has held my safety close to his chest as he has held me when I have been frightened, and I have felt so much fear.

He fears that I will hate him if he reveals the truth to me, of the things he has done that he regards as so terrible. But he does not understand, that his actions of the last few days have told me more about the truth of him than any tale of his past, and the way he has made love to me has proved his heart. I may not have my memories, and perhaps I have held anger towards him in my heart it the past, but I know as much as I need to, and I know that whatever it might have been then, that I would have dismissed it in due course. I can just feel the truth, and I know that it is with him. I never want to forget what has happened with him, and I will write this journal so that I never will.'

There were a dozen other pages all filled with her flowing script. I didn't read them all, I didn't need to, it was enough that she meant to remember, and that she trusted me the way she did.

"Sookie?"

"Do you see now Eric? I just know that this is the way it is supposed to be."

I looked into the wide blue eyes in front of me, and let the book drop to the couch again as I pressed my mouth to hers. My fangs dropped at the touch of her tongue to mine as she forced it past my lips to taste me. I was focused on the warmth of her mouth when I felt her hands slide between us. She shifted her hips and while still devouring my mouth she pulled me free from my trousers; it took only the touch of her fingers on me to bring me to solid life. Before I was even completely aware of it she had me grasped in her tender little fist and she brought her body down to engulf me. I captured her moan as she captured mine.

I closed my eyes and let her rule me then, loving the feeling of her working her body over mine, loving that she was deriving the same amount of pleasure from my body as I was from hers, and as I was getting from giving her that control. I used my hands only to wrap around her back, to keep her chest pressed to mine, to feel every point of contact and every electric shock that ran through her. She forced her hips against me with such passion that I could not hold back my climax, as much as I wanted to wait for her. But as I came for her, filling her body I think that perhaps she had even more pleasure knowing that she could make me lose control.

I sat, clasping her to my body, not wanting her to move away from me, feeling the pulsing of my body ebbing enough that some control was returning to me, when there was a knock on the office door.

"I'm going home Eric." Came Pam's voice. "I presume I'll see you there later?"

"Good bye Pam."

Sookie just giggled.

**Reviews are love; and bring on more lemons, (wink wink)**


	16. Chapter 16

Oh man, do these two do anything but make love? I ask you. Maybe Pam was right, a couple of little bunny rabbits. I promise if you can just get through these lemons I'll get back to the plot you have all been begging for. And girls, here's your bearskin rug.

;)

Part 16

"Have you ever slept with one of your customers Eric?"

The question blindsided me as we were putting ourselves to rights, still in my office, but aware of the late hour and the need to go home.

"No." I answered, without the hesitation I was probably entitled to.

"Funny how so many of them think about sleeping with you." She was so matter-of-fact I could hardly believe that we had so recently been intimate. I had forgotten that she was going to be practicing her telepathy in the bar that night. Damn but the sight of her made me absent-minded sometimes. Or perhaps I should have said single-minded. I had been so focused on what I had wanted to confess to her, that it had overridden most everything else in my thoughts.

"Do tell?" I plastered a smirk to my face as I finished tucking in my shirt again, wanting to be playful with her as I sensed she was doing with me. "Oh, and what happened to Diantha?"

"She got a call from her sister, said something really important had come up, and asked if I minded her leaving me with Arthur and Pam."

I had an idea what that might have been. Gladiola had been offended by the disturbed grave; quite odd for a demon I had thought at the time, and I wondered if she didn't mean to put it to rights with the help of her sister. Perhaps I wasn't being fair to demons, they most certainly had hearts and the same sense of justice that I prided myself in having.

"After she left I came back in here to start writing, the people around me were getting to me a bit. Some people can be so graphic in their fantasies."

She had me intrigued. Certainly, I had been offered the favors of many of my customers in the past, male and female alike. But for the sake of the business, and my own reputation I turned down every one. It wouldn't do to have the place raided as a brothel, or myself arrested when one partner had regrets the next morning.

"Really?" I don't know that I expected her to elaborate, but I didn't mind that she teased me back a little.

"Why yes Eric, I don't know if you can actually bend into some of those positions." She was pulling on her coat, pretending that she didn't find the whole conversation funny.

"Perhaps I might yet surprise you Sookie." I took her around the waist and kissed her firmly.

"And what about your staff?"

"What about my staff?"

"Do they have relations with the customers?"

"Not if they want to keep working for me they don't."

"Oh."

"And what does that mean Sookie?" I stopped in the process of setting the alarm at the back door and turned back to her.

"Probably nothing, just that some woman came by to see Arthur, I suppose she was probably a friend, and not a customer."

"What bothered you about her Sookie?" I felt an odd sense of warning bristle across my skin.

"She didn't look like she was dressed to go to a club. She kept her coat on the whole time, and gloves, even though it isn't cold out. And they were like dress gloves, not winter gloves."

"Did you hear what they were saying, or what she was thinking?"

"It was near the end of the night, I'm sorry, I was feeling pretty tired Eric. But I'm sure I caught flashes of them planning on meeting up later. I think she wanted to sleep with him, but I did get the impression they knew each other anyways. They seemed familiar to each other."

Interesting. I didn't know Arthur that well; Pam had hired him, as she hired most of the staff now since the trouble with Yvetta. I suppose he could have had a human lover, it was not that unusual. I filed that bit of information to ponder later. Something about it intrigued me. I finished setting the alarm and we set out for home.

The fireplace was stacked with wood, a habit I had made for myself upon moving in, so that I could light it immediately as I returned home. Another heathen custom that I am certain Pam would have said something about had I given her the chance too. I didn't mind that she tried to 'modernize' me at times, but I would never give up the warmth and aura of a wood fire, no matter how Neolithic Pam felt it was. The dry wood caught quickly as my match touched it and I set the screen in place so that no embers would spark from the hearth and set anything alight.

Sookie was coming out of the washroom, having cleaned the excess, in my opinion, makeup off her face, and brushed out the strands of blond so they gleamed. I stood, from where I had been kneeling on the skin rug just before the hearth, and waited for her to come to me.

"Can I help you untie your top?" Of course I had already taken my shirt off, the fire was warm, and I preferred being as close to its glow as I could.

"Thank you." She turned around slowly and pulled her hair away from her neck so that I could see the strings. I shuddered at the sight of her skin there; still aroused by the recent intimacy, and hungry for her. "It was kind of Diantha to bring me something nice to wear."

"You didn't need it to look beautiful Sookie." I took my time, playing my fingertips over her skin slowly, bringing my mouth to brush the back of her neck, gently blowing warm breath across her skin. I pulled at one of the bows as she clutched the fabric to her breasts and trembled. "You are beautiful just as you are." Then I slid my hands down and I pulled at the second bow at the small of her back. I let the strands fall as I brought my body close to hers and ran my arms around her front to undo the buttons of her skirt, which I pushed off her hips. She turned in my arms, still clutching the blue to cover herself.

"I think the most beautiful thing I have ever seen you wear, besides the body that nature gave you," I bent to nip at her ear and whisper to her, "was my shirt." She let the fabric fall and I crushed her into me.

We didn't make it to the bedroom, and that was fine with me, because I wanted her there, in front of the fire I had made, on the warmed fur of the bearskin rug that lay before it. I wanted her in my domain, and my fantasy just then, as if she had been a shield maiden or a princess of my own realm.

She went to her knees still pressed to my body as I followed, gently guiding her all the way to the floor; holding the back of her head, cradling her carefully, keeping my eyes locked with hers. I took the time to comb her hair out around her face like a halo, my fingers flowing through the silken strands as if they were water. All the words from her journal continued to spin in my head, and the feelings behind what she had written were overwhelming to me; and always would be. I wanted to be the person she had written about, and I wanted to make love to her as Eric Northman.

I took a long kiss from her mouth and then began to trace my fingers down her body, alternating caresses from them with those from my mouth when I desperately needed to taste her. And I was desperate for her. She tried to reciprocate but I gently pushed her hands away and cooed at her,

"Let me please you Sookie."

She moaned as I let my fang scratch her neck, and I lapped up the blood that welled, letting its power flow through me.

Energized I returned my mouth to the skin of her abdomen, kissing and nipping at her as I worked my way downwards. I dragged my hands down her sides, holding her tightly enough that I could feel the way her muscles tensed, but not so tight that I would cause her discomfort.

I could smell her; rather I could smell the scents of our mixed arousals, still clinging to her body from when she had taken me in the club. It made me so hungry for her and so desperate to give her the same pleasure she had given me. I couldn't resist her any longer. So much about being a vampire is based on the senses of taste and smell. It is our source of pleasure beyond most anything else; at least in a primal sort of way. She was driving me to the edge of my control.

I let my hands brush down her hips as I planted a kiss on the mound of flesh just above the final point of my mouth's questing. She mewled as my hands curved inwards and parted her legs for me so that I could bring my mouth down over her, drinking in the scent. I drew my tongue along the source and felt her squirm under my tightening grasp. The taste of her, the taste of us made me desperate for more and I lit on her, teasing the center of her, circling my tongue over her, listening to her cries increase in volume as I felt the muscles tense under my hands, but I would not let her move.

My actions became as frantic as hers, my tongue driving over her and into her, feeling her body yield to me, and yet try to resist me. And then she called out my name, gods I loved to hear her say my name.

"Eric!"

I felt the convulsions begin, and the flood of tastes and heat over me and I could not help myself but to drive my teeth into her soft inner thigh, needing the blood mixed with her orgasm. Her cry was delicious and I drank everything she gave me, feeling her hands begin to twine in my hair, holding my mouth in place, forcing her body against my mouth, begging me to keep drinking.

I felt the fatigue in her body as I held her pressed to my chest, as we lay beside each other, still on the fur rug, still before the fire. I was kissing her neck and face softly when she drew my attention to her; though I thought she might have been close to sleep.

"I want to taste you again Eric." She whispered between indrawn breaths. The words made me shudder, and temporarily lose my focus on my own ministrations to her. The pause must have left her wondering as I tried to recapture my thoughts, all the while, remaining still at her neck, feeling the pulse point underneath my lips.

"Eric, please?"

"Gods yes my beauty." I stabbed my first finger on my fang, hardly feeling the sting, lost in the anticipation of her next action.

I presented my hand to her, palm up, the pearl of blood on my finger shimmering like ruby mercury in the glow of the flame, dancing with the subtle trembling of my body. Tiny hands took my wrist and stroked my palm, pulling the fingertip to her mouth where her glistening tongue darted out to sweep the bead away. I couldn't help but moan to watch her, and it made her smile. She pulled the fingertip into her mouth, and did as I had done before, coaxing the wound with her tongue, pulling more and more of my blood into her mouth. I could not have been more aroused if she had taken my, well, I don't really need to go there.

She dragged my fingertips across her bottom teeth, taking another drop before my system healed the small tear and I pulled my fingers from her hungry mouth, very slowly.

"Why don't I get high from your blood, like the people who take V?" She asked, in the same deep voice.

"I don't know Sookie. Maybe because of your fairy blood, maybe because we have exchanged blood." I smiled at her and took a kiss from her mouth, "maybe you do get high, and maybe we both do, just in our own way."

"I want some more."

"If we share blood so frequently there is the chance that we will become bonded Sookie." I had previously considered the idea in daytime fantasies as I had lain awake, agonizing over her, but it flooded into the forefront of my thoughts just then.

"What is that Eric?"

"We will be able to sense each other's thoughts and feelings Sookie. There will be a connection between us that cannot be broken." Her response was hesitant.

"Did I have this connection with Bill?" That thought gave me pause, I had no idea if they had bonded, and if they had, did my blood have enough strength to break it? It was a selfish wave that struck me. I didn't want her bonded with him, she was my lover, and I did not want her to have thoughts of any other man, especially Bill Compton.

"Have you had dreams of him?" I asked, hoping for honesty, but hoping she had not.

"I don't even know what he looks like Eric." That statement gave me some comfort. It could be that they had never exchanged blood with the frequency required, or it could be that the amnesia had broken the bond, at least while her memories were gone. I became nervous. Would restoring her memories restore that intimate connection with him? It set a sick feeling in my gut.

"I don't know that you did Sookie." I tried to make my voice sound strong and convincing, as much for myself as for her. Bill had never thrown that in my face, and I had little doubt that he would have had he managed it. "But is that something you might wish to have with me?" I hung on her answer, feeling as if it might break me if she said no and the pause was torture.

"Let me drink Eric." She touched my face; she was so warm from the flames. "If you will have me."

If I would have her? A ridiculous question; not that I told her that. Months of fantasies, taking her as my lover, taking her as my true partner, taking her as mine assaulted me. I dropped my fangs and slashed my wrist ferociously, and curling my opposite arm under her shoulders I pressed the wound to her lips, and closed my eyes as she drank from me.


	17. Chapter 17

A long one for me, hope you make it to the end. I am desperate for your opinions and reviews, it's been a long week and I need your loving words, or at least your honest ones.

Enjoy

Merick

Part 17

Only after she'd truly fallen asleep did I move Sookie to my bed and off the floor. While it had never bothered me to sleep there, on or on the ground, or wherever I happened to find myself at the time, I knew she would be sore, even with my arms wrapped around her, and I had a feeling that the following night would be a long and difficult one, mostly because we were going to see Papa B, and this friend of his, and maybe, just maybe we'd get some answers for both of us.

After settling her under the blankets I went back to the main room and retrieved the journal that Sookie had left laying on the table when we had come home. I truly hadn't had the intention of reading it, I only wanted to make a copy of it, just in case, one I could lock in the wall safe. I suppose I deluded myself that it would be a backup in case something happened to the original, so that I would still have the words to show her; but really, I knew in my heart that it was insurance for me, so that if she got her memories back and chose to leave me, even in the face of the evidence and the draw of the blood we had shared, then at least I would have those few pages to comfort me, that once, if only for a few days, she had loved me.

I loved her, I can't say I knew exactly when that became apparent to me, maybe it was just the same as the comfort she described in the journal; just the knowledge that this was the way things were supposed to be. I was meant to love her, and I had only just been given the chance to realize it by the spell that had brought her to me. That thought made me wonder again, at the sense of everything that had happened, and yet another thought occurred; I was on a roll it seemed, in my sleep-deprived state. Perhaps there had been no malice intended at all. Perhaps it was a gift to me. That idea stayed with me very briefly because I knew that I was not that lucky, and that more people in the world wished me harm than good. In fact, I believe I could have counted those who wished me well on one hand, and had three fingers left to spare.

I held the sheaves of paper in my hand, just in front of the open safe, the first page, which I'd already read staring at me. It was the Sookie I knew, I'd always known she'd had the strength she'd written down there, but it had been veiled by the way she had lived, the way she had grown up, used to hiding herself, staying in the shadows; I laughed to myself at that thought, we really weren't so different after all I reasoned. For a very long time we had both hidden our true natures, for means of self-preservation; she, to keep away the taunts of children and the fear and isolation of adults; by isolating herself, me to stave off the torch wielding mobs. Not really, but it was as good an analogy as I could come up with then, sleep tugging at me. Now, she didn't have the handicap of that past, the self-censuring, and her true nature could come out; the nature that I had always been able to see. I flipped to the second page and settled myself at my desk, just to read a few lines.

'That first night, that first day I guess I should say, was the most frightening one of my life. Okay, that sounds dumb, I don't remember any nights at all, but it was terrifying, not knowing anything, just staring at the walls of Eric's house, trying not to cry, trying not to scream. I'd woken up to find out I was a telepath, that werewolves were real, not to mention demons, and all manner of supernatural beings. I'd found out someone had put a spell on me, and I'd been closeted away, for my safety. I was lost. I didn't even know where I fit into Eric's life, or where he wanted me to be. The one thing I did know was that I couldn't be alone or I risked losing the small shred of my mind that I was still master of. I went to Eric's door, and I knocked, and he invited me in, and he let me sleep with him, asking nothing, but giving me the comfort of the only arms and the only body I knew, to calm me, so that I could sleep. It was the kindest thing I can imagine anyone doing for another human being.'

I stopped reading then. I knew where I wanted her in my life, and I also knew that I needed the courage to tell her. I had the courage to walk into the sun to exact my revenge on Russell Edgington, but I didn't have the courage to open my heart to her completely, not then. I looked down at the next paragraph. I was so tired and even though she had offered the book to me, I suddenly felt like I was betraying her in reading it. Perhaps I was just afraid of what it might say next. I shut it away in the safe and joined her in bed, hoping for a few hours of rest before we had to start our task again, of putting her life to rights.

"Do you have anything white?" I called out in response to the question she had muttered under her breath, not really meaning for me to hear it. She was trying to decide what she should wear to go to New Orleans that evening, to meet Papa B. All the women I'd seen around him always seemed to be dressed in white, I figured it couldn't hurt to be respectful in that way.

I walked out of the bathroom, having showered and combed out my hair to see her pulling on a white sundress, with an eyelet lace ruffle.

"That will be perfect Sookie."

She smiled and blushed a bit, perhaps I had let my gaze rest on her for too long just then, but she was just so different than the other women who surrounded me, her questions of the previous night had brought them to mind. The dancers, the customers, the giggling twenty somethings who only wanted me to bed them, which I never did, at the club at least, except for the dancers, but I digress; they nearly breathed sex in their language, and manner of dress, and even the motions of their bodies as they paraded for me at the club. She was the antithesis of all of them, even though she wasn't completely innocent herself, depending how you define the word innocent. I defined her as innocent, granting her the same courtesy she had given me, though I had so much more to be forgiven for than her.

"You didn't come to sleep until very late." She remarked as I looked through my closet to find a coat she could wear.

"I had a great many things to think about Sookie. I am sorry if I woke you." I didn't want to think about those questions that had stolen sleep from me, or about the anxieties they brought with them. I kept riffling through the hangers until I found a three-quarter-leather coat, on her it would be well past her knees I figured.

"It's okay, I don't know why I even woke up then, I was so tired and you always move so carefully." I had had no idea that she had been watching me move that closely, I felt a rush of happiness, normally a foreign thing for me, except over the last few nights. Her appearance was turning my normally staid world quite topsy-turvy. "Thank you for letting me stay with you again." She continued, seemingly oblivious to my internal musings.

Such a terrible hardship it was for me it, having her in my bed each evening as I woke. I grinned to myself. I would have her there every night if only the gods would see fit. Of course I had no idea what they had in store for me, or for her, as easy as it was to forget the ever-present threat.

"Will you put this on?" I held out the coat for her.

"Why?"

"The trip to New Orleans will be cold for you if you don't wear it."

"Your car doesn't have heat?"

"We aren't driving, it will take too long. I thought we would fly, if that idea doesn't scare you."

"You have a plane?"

"I can fly Sookie."

"Really?" The southern accent made her question seem all the more charming; I suppose she hadn't seen me leaving Fangtasia that way before, at least not that she could remember. And suddenly, I felt a little spark, just the tiniest thing, amusement, from somewhere. And though I could have imagined it I wanted it to be the beginning of the bond between us, I so wanted it to have been from her thoughts.

"Yes, I can fly. I promise you, I will keep you safe, but it will be cold, so please wear the coat."

"I trust you Eric." Oh how I loved to hear those words fall from her lips; and not just in my fantasies. She slipped her arms into the oversized sleeves and wrapped it around herself. She did look a bit like a little girl wrapped up in her father's clothing just then, but again, all I saw was the charm of her. Seeing her in my things just reinforced the need I felt in me to protect her. I hoped that she could feel that from me.

I kept her pressed close to my chest as we flew, for her part she kept her eyes closed, and her face folded into my shoulder. Despite the cold wind, I felt her warm breath against my neck. I tried not to think about how much I would miss it if things didn't go my way. I felt her little fingertips brush against my chest in a reassuring way, as if she had heard me and was feeling my anxiety.

I landed close to the shop, as I've said, it was far back from Bourbon street so there weren't the tourist crowds to try to snap a picture of 'a real live vampire honey'. It was enough having those people with their smart phones in the club. But at least there they were buying drinks. I ushered her into the shop, and the Hounsi women once again led us quickly to the back where Papa B was waiting, with another person, an older woman who must have been the friend he had told me about.

"Brother Eric." He rose to greet me, moving in his characteristic slow and deliberate manner. He did not hold his hand out to me; he knew well enough that most vampires did not like to be touched. Perhaps it is because to touch a human is to feel their warmth and to understand something of what we have given up. Perhaps it is simply that many vampires feel superior to humans and feel that to touch one would debase them. I am not certain where my proclivities lie, I prefer to think they are with the former statement, but I know that at some times they are certainly with the latter. Of course Sookie didn't seem concerned about those niceties, and I certainly didn't mind her touching me any time she wished to.

Papa B held no reservations about offering Sookie his hand.

"Welcome Sister." Her white hand disappeared into his withered dark one, and I knew as he shook it that he was taking his own impressions from her, and that she was likely doing the same to him.

"Sir."

"You must call me Papa B child, like everyone else around here does."

"Thank you Papa B."

"And I would like to introduce my friend here, Sister Octavia."

She was a beautiful woman, or certainly had been in her prime. Even though aged she still carried herself with the same confidence of a beauty, even more so now that it was coupled with wisdom. She wore her hair in long braids, black strands mingled with white, with only a few errant corkscrews creating a halo-like effect around her face. I nodded to her, with the utmost respect and she returned the gesture with an enchantingly demure smile. I liked her.

"Thank you for seeing us again so soon Papa B." I withdrew the second little bag of ash that I had retrieved from Sookie's fireplace. "We had a chance to return to Sookie's home and I discovered this." I pushed the bag towards him.

"Excellent Brother Eric." He took the powder and examined it in much the same manner has he had done before, with the circle of salt and the candles. But this time he turned for an opinion to Octavia who ran her fingers through it as well. I remained silent as she did so, though I watched her face carefully, she remained quite neutral. Only when they both withdrew their hands did I dare break the silence.

"And what do you think Papa B?"

"I think that here we have a more likely source for your amnesia Sister."

Octavia began. "The first remains that Papa B showed me were most certainly used to subdue you child. But I agree that this is the tangible part of the spell that has taken your memories."

"Are you a practitioner of the same arts as Papa B Miss Octavia?"

"Oh no dear boy." She called me boy. I grinned. Southern women were all so delightful, I had to be well over nine hundred years older than her, but still she saw me as young. I knew there was a reason I had settled in this state, well, among the many; the decorum. "I am a witch."

I felt Sookie bristle beside me and she reached for my hand under the table, I felt her fear. Apparently so had Octavia.

"Child, do not worry, not all witches lay evil spells, just as not all vampires are demons."

"No, vampires and demons are very different things." Sookie whispered, which brought a loud peal of laughter from Papa B, who was well aware of the existence of such things.

"Be that as it may, I guess I am what you might call a 'good witch', unlike the ones your Mr. Northman here has encountered before." Sookie did not relax appreciably.

"Can you help me?" Her voice was so tiny and hesitant. It bothered me because there was reluctance in it.

"I don't know for certain child. Might I take your hand?"

Sookie stretched out her hand and laid it on the table, palm up. Octavia slid hers overtop it, resting her palm in the crook of Sookie's elbow, and then grasping it gently. She closed her eyes and seemed to be thinking, or drawing something out of the touch. Sookie remained quite still.

"Hallow Stonebrook, does this name mean anything to you?" Sookie shook her head.

"It does to me." I answered.

"The work seems like hers, but that is quite impossible."

"Yes, she is dead, as is her brother." Sookie turned to look at me, perhaps a little shocked that I had such information. "She was the witch who put the spell on me." I told Sookie.

"You killed her?"

"I did not." Not that I wouldn't have snapped her neck if Pam hadn't gotten to her first. I didn't say that out loud.

"She was killed in an uprising she began." Octavia offered, she probably didn't know the full truth of her demise either. I didn't feel the need to fill anyone in.

"Is that how the spell was broken? When she died?" Sookie asked us both.

"No, Pam convinced her to remove the spell."

"It is the easiest way." Octavia murmured. "But not the only way."

Sookie pulled her arm away from Octavia and hid it away in her lap again. I could see her trembling.

"I don't want anyone to die." This was why I would always see Sookie as an innocent.

"And they do not have to child. Have you remembered anything?"

Sookie looked at me. "A few things, with Eric's help."

Octavia smiled knowingly; perhaps a little too knowingly for my comfort. I felt uneasy with the thought that she believed that I was having sex with Sookie, and that she might think I was taking advantage of her. Perhaps I should have had more faith in the woman.

"That is as it should be. One's heart's desire should be able to help guide the gros bon ange as Papa B would say." She turned to look at him, and smiled in a very familiar way, and I understood then that they were lovers as well, my admiration for Papa B went up a notch. "It would seem that your ti bon ange has found itself a home in this man beside you."

"I'm so sorry, I don't mean to be disrespectful but I don't quite understand."

"Mr. Northman is acting as your guardian right now, your ti bon ange, while we find a way to counteract the spell. Your ti bon ange sought him out as your heart's desire."

Sookie turned quite red. I tried to help.

"You were brought to me because a part of your soul knew that I would protect you. Just as I was brought to you on New Years Eve."

"So you two have been drawn to each other? This is good, you must remain together then, so that you can uncover more."

"But can I get my memory back?"

"I believe that I can create a spell that will restore you to how you were before this incident." Those were not the words I wanted to hear, I mean, they were, but I didn't want her to lose everything we'd shared, journal or no journal, the Sookie that had emerged, while frightened, was so much more confident, and I knew that she would leave the fear behind eventually. I just didn't want her to leave me behind as well. Damn it, I hated wishing that she didn't get her memory back, it made me feel the evil demon Octavia had alluded to earlier without realizing how funny the comparison had been.

"No." I turned to look at Sookie, confused at her answer.

"Sookie?"

"I can't lose this Eric." She took my hand, in full view of Papa B and Octavia. "I may not have any memories, but it doesn't mean that I have nothing."

"We can talk about this Sookie."

"You have intimated about so much sadness in my past Eric. I don't think I am willing to trade this, what we have, for that. Unless," she stuttered, "unless you don't want me."

I was getting quite uncomfortable in the presence of two people, who at best could be called business associates, certainly not intimate enough friends to be pouring out my heart in front of. Sookie took my silence badly. I squeezed her hand and looked straight at her, seeing the tears forming in her eyes and I willed her to feel something, anything from me through this tremulous bond I was deluding myself into believing we had formed in three short days.

"Please trust me Sookie." I whispered. She sniffled.

"Child, this man here is good. I know this." Papa B was stepping up for me. "And Octavia will need time to put together a counter curse. Perhaps things will return to you on their own before we need to explore something like this."

"Yes child, perhaps I can yet determine who has done this, perhaps there is a way." Octavia tried to sound encouraging, but a tear rolled down Sookie's face. She stood, mumbling that she had to leave and then she fled.

"I'm sorry, I do appreciate what you both have tried to do." I stood to follow her, trying to maintain my own composure.

"Whoever has done this deserves to be discovered Mr. Northman, whatever her desires, we will still be searching for the witch that has done this."

"Or the vampire." I muttered, more convinced than ever that Bill Compton was responsible, even if the proof didn't point his way yet. I could think of no one else who could be this deliberately cruel to such a gentle soul. And I desperately wanted a tangible villain so I could take my rage out on someone. I thanked both Papa B and Octavia again and went out to look for Sookie. I had no idea that my wish would be fulfilled so quickly.

**Reviews are love. **


	18. Chapter 18

I hope you like this, I rewrote it a few times, wanting to get the feel right, I may rewrite it again, who knows.

Let me hear what you think.

Merick

Part 18

Finding her was no difficult task, not with my blood in her body. She hadn't gotten far from the shop. It was only a few blocks down Chartres Street to the St. Louis Cathedral and its cemetery just north of that and that was the direction she was headed, whether she was aware of the path she had chosen in her despair, or not. I caught up to her quickly.

"Sookie. Please stop." I reached out to grab her arm, not intending to jar her backwards or to harm her with a rough grasp. "Please." Her soft footfall froze. But she did not turn to me.

"What do you want from me Eric?" She kept looking ahead down towards the triple crowned church, bathed in the glare of the spotlights that lit its grand white entrance. She looked a thousand miles away. I hated it.

"I want you to stop walking away from me Sookie." Direct, perhaps harsh, but again, quite true. She wheeled on me, the same heart wrenching tear streaks on her face.

"I don't know what to do Eric, I'm feeling so many different things in my head right now."

"How can I help? What do you need me to do Sookie?"

"Be honest with me Eric." She broke down in tears again and I pulled her into my arms. I looked around us, there weren't a great number of other pedestrians on the street then, but there were enough, looking at us and I took to the air with her again, they could think whatever they wanted of me, of us, I didn't care, they could tell their friends they'd seen a flying Vampire, no one would believe them anyways. I took her to the St. Louis Cemetery number one. It was the first place that came to mind, and one not unfamiliar to me. Only a city block in size, 100,000 souls were entombed there, and I had walked the rows many times during my visits to New Orleans. The floods had left it a little worse for wear, with the brown stains of the water level visible against the white stuccoed edifices. I knew of a little corner, away from the tourist tracks and the paths of the Haunted New Orleans tours, the crypts belonged to the less culturally significant former citizens, so there were no ghost tales about them to draw prying eyes, at least in the moonlight. I sat her on a little memorial bench, wrapped back up in my jacket against the night air and I sat beside her. Her words to me echoed in my ears, pounding against the inside of my head.

"I have been honest with you from the moment you awoke Sookie." She couldn't look at me.

"I know." She didn't sound completely convinced of her statement. That bothered me. "It's just that nothing makes sense right now Eric. I want my life back, I want to know who did this to me, but at the same time I am so frightened."

"Why are you frightened?" Some psychologist I was turning into. Pam would have probably gagged to hear it. She had been quick to renounce that aspect of her humanity when I had turned her; if she'd ever held that kind of compassion for anyone human.

"You've told me that you couldn't remember what happened to you, when you were under the spell Eric."

"Not until I made love to you again Sookie. Then it was all clear."

"Are you certain of that?"

"What?" I furrowed my brow in confusion, and then felt a cold shiver run down my spine as the comprehension dawned, kissing me with the wisp of some horrible doubt that sickened me.

"Can you trust those memories Eric?" She pushed further.

That thought was terrifying, could I trust the memories, or were they just the product of the fantasies, born on sleepless days and angry nights of blackness? Again I had to pause before answering her, trying to find an answer to my newfound confusion.

"I have to believe them Sookie. There are too many things that we share, there is too much to discount. They are real." I needed to hear myself say it, to strengthen my own resolve. But my poor Sookie was so lost in her own confusion that she could hardly hear me.

"What if I lose these days Eric?"

"Then I will show you the journal. You will read your own words."

"And what if I don't believe them?"

I couldn't understand why she was suddenly being so difficult. Did her fear stem from something other than the lost memories? Did it stem from my hesitance?

"If you do not believe them then I will prove myself to you."

"You would have sex with me, even if I didn't want it?"

"No!" I cried out, leaping to my feet, my protest echoing against the tombstones and mausoleum walls. I couldn't understand how she had made that leap. "No Sookie! No." I found it very hard to calm myself and I paced for a few moments, in front of her, curling my hands into fists, dug into my chest. "No. I would never do that Sookie." Her despair was defeating me; I sat back down beside her, heavily upon the stone, dropping my head into my hands. "I would walk away from you, if that was your wish." I wanted to rage against that thought, I wanted to cry out my objections but I couldn't. I felt suddenly overwhelmed and I stared at her.

She sniffed again, and tried in vain to dab away tears that were too large for her fingertips.

"But that isn't what I want Eric." She looked so broken as she whispered it that I had to pull her into my arms. "I don't know what I want Eric, except that I don't want to lose this." She pulled my arms tighter around her quivering shoulders. "It feels like my own mind is fighting itself." Her voice was muffled against my chest and I more than heard her pain, I felt it run through my core. And then I understood.

"You aren't fighting your mind Sookie. You are fighting mine."

"Eric?" That beautiful little tear stained face looked up at me, now looking even more lost, yet charming, framed in the oversized collar of my coat. I could only smile at her, I loved her so much then. I had to kiss her, I had to taste her mouth, and she did not pull away from me as I bent my face to hers, pushing my lips against ones swollen red with tears. I felt her melt into me.

"We are bonded Sookie. Your confusion is because of me, because of what I have been thinking, and agonizing over, and for that I am sorry. I have been afraid as well, afraid that you would forget what we have found here, and afraid that you would return to your life without me. I am selfish Sookie, it isn't that I didn't want you to find your memories, I just need to be a part of them too."

"I'm feeling your thoughts?"

"More my emotions. And I have been feeling yours and once again we have muddled ourselves together Sookie, in our doubts and fears." I felt like laughing, it was an uncomfortable thing for me to feel overwhelmed by anything, except maybe by love-making and its normal conclusions. Sitting with her there, I hated that I had felt that way, and not immediately understood why, because I only wanted to be strong for her, because she needed me to be that way.

"Sookie, I have never been one for wearing my heart on my sleeve. Unlike you. But it does not mean that I do not possess emotions. I have always kept my feelings close to my chest as it were." I pounded my hand against it, as if that action would prove a point. "I have had to. Lest something like this happen. Someone has done this to you to hurt me somehow, because they know how important you are to me." I felt the need to explain to her why I had simply not pounced on the chance to pour out my heart to her at Papa B's. But it was she who comforted me, with a gentle hand on the arm that was still clutching at her in fear that she would vanish like the mist that rose around the stones as the temperatures fell.

"I understand Eric."

"A thousand years of being stoic." I began.

"They have not all been like that Eric."

"No, they have not, there have been moments." I reached out to run the backs of my fingers down her cheek; she closed her eyes and leaned into them. "There have been people."

"What do you want me to do Eric?"

I wanted her to stay with me always, I wanted her to give up the memories and know me only as the man who sat beside her, the man who I always should have been in front of her, I wanted her to be my lover. And I wanted to tell her the true depths of the emotions I was trying to keep in check, out of fear.

"I want you to be happy." I answered. Yes, I wanted that too. "What do you want Sookie?"

"I want to know who did this to me, and why. And I don't want to be scared anymore. And I do want my life back, but I also want you to be in it Eric. I just don't know if I can have everything that I want."

"Will you let Papa B and Octavia help us?"

She nodded. I felt some relief, not a terrible amount sadly, but some. And so I sat there, holding her in my arms amongst the crypts.

"If it is in my power, I will give you everything that you want Sookie. And if it isn't," I paused to grin, "I will use my considerable influence to ensure that you get it anyways." She laughed at me, a great smile erasing the tear tracks. She gathered herself up again, screwing on that face of courage that she'd been projecting for everyone for the last few days, only now I could see and feel underneath it. I kissed her on the forehead very softly.

"You want me Eric?" She whispered to me.

"I never want to be without you Sookie." I whispered back. "My soul would be empty without you." Beautiful blue eyes stared at me, as if they could actually see right into the soul I had opened to her. But of course, they almost could, through the blood. "Sookie, I" And then my phone rang.


	19. Chapter 19

Please, please, pretty please, send me your thoughts on what you think of this development.

I don't own these characters, but I sure love that they came to play in my yard.

Part 19

If it had been anyone else I would have ignored the phone until it quieted, or simply crushed it to shut it up, but this was a special ring tone, and the person who was calling, never, ever called 'just to chat'. No, Pam only called when there was a serious emergency, and by serious, I meant absolutely dire, something that even her capable hands couldn't manage. I sighed, a human habit that I still hadn't been able to put aside, even after a thousand years; funny what sticks with you isn't it? But I just could not tear my gaze away from Sookie's blue eyes, even as the phone rang twice more.

"You should probably answer that Eric." Her voice pulled me back to the reality of the situation.

Resigned, I reached into the breast pocket of my jacket, and took out the annoying little box, snapping it open to bring it to life. At the same time I twined my fingers into Sookie's, because I was not about to let her run away from me again.

"This had better be good Pam." I practically growled it into the phone, but of course I knew it would be, or rather, that it would be bad, and important.

"You need to come back to the club. Now." Her voice was tense, peppered with an anger that set my senses on alert.

"Why?" I felt the moment I had been waiting so long for slipping away from me.

"Bill Compton is here." Bloody, fucking hell. "He insists on seeing you, and Sookie."

"Can't you just tell him I'm not there and that he should leave?"

"Oh thanks Eric, I never thought of that." The sarcasm nearly dripped through the wireless connection.

"Tell him I'll see him later Pam."

"He says that he'll see you both tonight, now, or he'll burn the club to the ground."

Oh I desperately wanted to ask her to just kill him there and be done with him. She might not have been as old as Bill, but she had me as her sire, and my thousand years, plus Godric's two thousand which gave her a blood advantage that Bill Compton would never have. Of course, I couldn't just ask her to do that over the phone, not with Sookie sitting right beside me. And besides that unfortunate proximity, if I had him killed before I could drag the information out of him, I might never know what role, if any, he had played in Sookie's curse. I swore out loud, in the ancient tongue I had taught Pam, I could almost hear her nod in agreement with my assessment of the situation.

"Tell him we'll be there shortly, but as to whether or not he sees Sookie, that decision is hers alone." I snapped the phone shut before I could hear any more bad news. Sookie was staring at me, lips just parted, and again I sighed. The moment was lost. I looked around me at the tombs, and the dust, and the cold stone. Perhaps a graveyard was not the place to profess one's love anyways, not that I was about to credit anyone, especially Bill Compton, with saving me from a mistake. I supposed I would never know.

"Who am I supposed to see Eric?"

Again I sighed, I had known that the moment would come eventually when we would have to confront him, but it didn't make it any easier to digest.

"Bill Compton, but only if you agree Sookie. He's at Fangtasia, waiting for us to return."

"You don't want me to se him?"

"What I want is immaterial Sookie. The choice is yours."

"Do you think seeing him may bring back more of my memories?"

"I don't know Sookie. I just don't want him to be able to hurt you again."

"Will you stay with me?"

Thank the gods she had asked, not that I'd had any intention of leaving her alone with him, but I didn't want her to think that I didn't trust her, or that I thought she was weak. It would make it a lot easier if she wanted me present. And I would have that ammunition against Compton when he tried to order me out. Not that he could really order me to do anything mind you.

"I will never leave your side Sookie."

"Then I'll see him."

And if he tries to hurt you, I thought to myself, I will kill him, information or no information.

I held her to my chest for a few moments after we landed in the back parking lot of Fangtasia. There were no cars there that night, but it was still early, relatively speaking for Vampires and their fans. There was a spot, where I'd purposely disabled the overhead lighting, just so I had a shadow to materialize in. We didn't make a habit of letting humans see that some of us could fly. Not that I'd cared a wit about it back in New Orleans. I kissed her forehead, drinking in the clean scent of her hair again. I could have spent hours there, not doing anything else but holding her, and for her part, she made no move to pull away from me, which made me indescribably happy; and not just because it would be my scent all over her body when Bill saw her. I lamented the fact that I couldn't just make love to her there so he'd have had to smell that too, but that was selfish, as enticing as the notion was.

I could kiss her though, and I took advantage of that opportunity with some gusto, roughly forcing her lips apart with my own. I felt her mind reach out with a wash of butterflies, and I felt her body tremble in my arms as my fangs dropped against her tongue, cutting it. The blood taste made me clutch at her harder, and I loved that she yielded herself to me just then. I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved her independent spirit, the one that challenged me at most turns when no one else dared do so, but at times, I just wanted to feel her as mine, mine to care for and protect, at her wish. And just then I wanted her as dependent on me as I was on her. Not that I would admit that to anyone but myself.

"Do we have to go inside Eric?" Those blue eyes drew me in again, like jewels, more precious than anything I had even seen given in tribute to my father in the great hall. And I had seen so many precious things there; but none so precious as the woman in my arms whose mind opened to me in her fear, and her innate curiosity.

I wanted to say no, but I knew we would have to face him eventually, and better on my territory and on my terms, and together. I frowned, which was hard to do with the taste of her still on my tongue, and nodded. She screwed up the immeasurable courage I knew she had, and put on the brave face I had so recently seen in Papa B's and we went inside, her clutching my hand so hard it would have hurt me had I been mortal.

I had informed Pam of our arrival at almost the moment we had touched down; that was a definite advantage of having my child so close to me, that I could send her my thoughts, or call for her. And Pam was well practiced in receiving them, and still remaining unreadable. She knew to wait until Sookie and I were well set in the office, before informing Bill of our presence, I would make him come to me, not the other way around. I was counting on the fact that he could no longer sense her, whether by design of the curse, or of my blood.

We were as far away from the door as possible, with Sookie mostly hidden behind me, as it crashed open. It certainly wasn't the first time I'd had to repair the hinges, but I remained calm, outwardly at least, as Bill Compton made his entrance. I felt and heard Sookie shriek at the sudden upset, but I held her steady.

"Sookie?" His voice wasn't one of concern at seeing a friend thought lost, or even surprise at her circumstances, or relief that she was safe. No, his voice betrayed an annoyance, I thought directed mostly at me for my presence, and my inconsiderate keeping of his former lover away from him. And there was anger in it, as if to ask 'what the hell are you doing with him.' Which, funnily enough, became a question very shortly thereafter, expressed, perhaps not as succinctly as I have put it.

"Bill?" Her voice was shaky, I hated him for doing that to her. Her eyes widened as she stared at him, I could see the uncertainty in her face, and so could Bill and his gaze turned immediately to me, as did the accusatory words.

"What have you done to her Eric!" His fangs dropped as did my own, and both of us curled lips back in an innate, predatory scowl that might have seen us leap for each other, to tear out throats, but for the presence of the woman we both professed to love in our hearts. It was her cries that held us back.

"Stop it!" She yelled it at us both, but it was my hand she continued to hold. The satisfaction in that act was more than I can express. I will admit to directing a grin towards Bill, I thought I was entitled to at least that, seeing as he had broken my office door. We held fast.

"If you have hurt her Eric I will kill you." He snarled at me, he really had no idea how to play the game. But I left him to it.

"He hasn't hurt me Bill, just the opposite. He has been protecting me."

"Protecting you?" The indignation was raw in his words. "Protecting you from what?"

"I don't know exactly." Sookie hung her head, perhaps realizing how ridiculous her answer must have seemed to him.

"I don't understand Sookie. Why would you come to Eric Northman to protect you? If anything, he is the one you should be protected from. You know that I would die for you Sookie."

"No Bill, I don't know that." He took the answer as an insult, when of course, he should not have.

"I know that I have lost your trust Sookie, but I still love you, I will always love you." He took a few steps towards her, looking as though he wanted to reach out to touch her, but she shied away, back towards me. "Do you not remember the times I have come to your aid, even in the sunlight itself?"

"No Bill, I'm sorry, I don't."

His angry gaze turned back to me. "I don't understand."

"Sookie has been the victim of some type of spell, she has lost all memory of who she is." I answered the question for her; sensing that need from her.

"And she came to you for protection?"

"Someone left her here for me to find Bill. But I am protecting her, yes."

"This is not right Sookie. You should not be here with him, it is likely he who has commissioned this spell, so that you will forget the terrible things he has done to you, so that he will be able to convince you of his grace, and use you for his own purposes." I felt her hand tighten around mine again. I offered no retort, allowing Bill to spool out enough rope to hang himself with quite efficiently.

"What kind of lies has he told you about me?" I suppose I couldn't blame him for taking the chance, now that he knew that Sookie had no memories of either of us. Had I been a lesser, more desperate man I might have done the same. Or perhaps not. Sookie also remained silent.

"I imagine he has told you that I sought you out at the behest of my Queen, that I never loved you but only deceived you for my own gains. He has probably told you that I abandoned you for my maker, when in truth I could not break her hold on me, and wanted desperately to come to you. He has probably told you that it was I who put your life in jeopardy for my own selfishness when the truth was that I was a puppet, and that what I did was only to protect you."

"He has told me nothing of you Bill, it is perhaps the one thing he has denied me when I have questioned him about my life."

Bill's eyes grew wide at the admission and he stared back and forth between us, not believing that I had not taken the chance to defame his character in front of her.

"And what has he told you of himself that you cling to him so readily?" Now he was angry. "Has he told you how his actions have nearly killed you on three separate occasions? Has he told you how he tricked you into taking his blood so that he could keep track of you?"

Only then did her small voice, calmer than I expected it to be, answer him. I stood in awe of her response.

"He has told me everything." Bill did not seem convinced. "I know that I put myself in dangerous situations at his request, but he could not have known that the betrayal of others would put me in danger." I believed that she referred to LongShadow revealed as a thief by her inquires, and Hugo, Isabel's human lover who had turned to the fellowship when she refused to turn him. I was surprised that she knew as many details as she seemed to, but I left that curiosity for later exploration. "But still I am here, and not dead, whatever the full truth of the matters. I know that at Godric's home, when the man blew himself up, with the silver IED. Eric stepped in front of me, to shield me from the blast."

"And then he lied to you about the extent of his injuries, so that you would try to help him."

"Yes, he lied to me, and he has sincerely apologized for that action. And I have accepted that apology."

"He almost let the King of Mississippi drain you so that he could walk out into the sun." Bill was grasping, I could see the noose tightening.

"Things went awry. They were never supposed to be like that Bill."

His laugh was frightening. "Things always seem to go awry around Eric Northman, he cares for no one but himself."

"You forget, Eric walked out into the sun first, to save all of us Bill."

"If only you had died in that concrete Eric! I should have waited around till it hardened just to make sure!" He reached out for Sookie, grasping her upper arm roughly, meaning to drag her away from me by force. I let my grip on her loosen, only because I knew that it would either be her hand or her arm that broke if I did not.

"Let go of me!" She screamed at him, and she flung her other hand, the one so recently curled into mine, against his chest with a roar that would have done a shield maiden proud. From that contact I saw a great burst of light, something that blinded me for a split second, and threw Bill Compton across the room.

"What do you mean that you wish he had died in the concrete?" She hurled at him.

He stared at me, knowing his mistake finally, and regretting it most sincerely. Sookie turned her face to me.

"What does he mean Eric?"

"We went to dispose of the King, sealing him in the concrete foundation of a building." I watched her shudder, and I felt the revulsion in her mind at our act, but I could not dwell on it then. "Once the king was taken care of Bill snapped silver handcuffs on me and pushed me into another mould, directing the concrete on me while I was too weak to resist. He left me to be entombed there. Pam pulled me free."

The venom in her eyes was bright as she glared at him. He tried to hold her gaze, but I could see that it was too much for him.

"I may not have my memories but I can see the truth of you Bill Compton. Eric may not have been careful with my life, and he may have even tricked me into taking his blood, but he never, ever set out to do me harm! He is a hundred times the man you will ever be; at least he gave me the truth of his mistakes, he practically begged me to hear them when I dismissed the actions. And he never said anything about the real truth behind your actions Bill, because he didn't want to hurt me, and because he didn't need to use your deception to make himself look the bigger man in my eyes! He may not be perfect, but he has never tried to deceive me into loving him!"

"Sookie." I could have felt sorry for him, but for the fact I had been so recently reminded of that concrete bath.

"Get out of here Bill Compton, don't come near me again!"

He stumbled to his feet.

"What shall I tell Jessica?" She looked at me for an explanation.

"His child," I offered, "Your friend."

"Tell her the truth! Tell her what you did to me!" She calmed herself just then with an admirable act of control. "Tell her that I wish I could remember her, because I could use a friend right now."

"Please Sookie? My love for you was always honest."

"Go away Bill, just leave me alone, please." She pulled back into my arms, the tears beginning to form in her eyes again. "Did you do this to me? Did you take all this away from me Bill? Tell me the truth. Was it your way of absolving yourself, thinking that if I could not remember that your sins would be moot?"

"No Sookie. I would never do this to you. You must believe me."

Sadly, I believed him. Bill was too methodical in his plans and plots, he would never have commissioned a spell that could have gone so badly, that would have put Sookie in my arms rather than his. Even if he hadn't known about her feelings towards me, he would never have taken the chance. He was not innocent, but I began to believe that he had not been involved.

I gently guided Sookie to the couch, and only then let her leave the circle of my arms as I stood to face Bill.

"If I ever see you around Fangtasia again Bill, with so much as a candle in your hand, I will kill you." I don't know if Sookie had heard me, she might have. But just then I had to be Eric Northman, the Sheriff of Area five, and her protector. And I needed her to see my strength.

**Reviews are Love, and boy do I need a hug,**


	20. Chapter 20

It's Valentine's Day, and I know you want to hear our favorite Viking utter those precious words to his beauty,…

Part 20

"You have seen something ugly tonight Sookie." She was still sitting on the couch, head in her hands, sobbing, though trying so hard to keep me from hearing her. "It would have been my wish that you never know of it, but I could not keep it from you or I would be no better than those who took your memories." I remained by the broken door, having closed it to the best of my abilities after Bill's departure. It would need a repairman to do the proper work, but it sufficed for the evening.

"May I sit beside you?" My gut was roiling, I could not imagine what she was feeling about me just then, or really about anything. Our tremulous bond showed me nothing but overwhelming sorrow. Though I comforted myself that it was not fear, and in the fact that she nodded at me, still without meeting my eyes. I sat carefully beside her, but made no move to touch her. The anger with Bill that had sparked the outburst of light from her hands was abated, but since I did not fully understand its nature, or how it had the strength to send one of my kind reeling I was taking no chances.

"Why Eric?" Her voice was still broken by the tears, and I did not fully understand the substance of her query; indeed there were so many questions she could have had just then that I was afraid to choose the wrong one to answer.

"Have you remembered anything new Sookie?" I prodded her carefully.

"Nothing, not even after touching him." She sounded so miserable just then, I wanted to pull her into my arms, but she gave me no indication that was what she desired. And I continued to worry about what she must now think of me. "Nothing." She moaned.

"Sookie." I could do nothing but try to sooth her with a calm voice.

"What did I do to him, when I touched him?"

"I think it is some type of protection, afforded you by your fairy heritage. A way to keep you safe from us." I was prepared then to lump myself in with all Vampires, though I did not know if the lights worked against any other beings. It was my kind that had threatened her ancestors, and my kind that continued to threaten her. At that moment I felt no better than any of them.

"I am a monster."

"No Sookie, you are not. The only monster in this room is I."

She finally then did look at me, and I shuddered at her gaze, but reddened, frightened eyes softened so quickly as she took in my face, a picture of my own misery.

"Would you kill him Eric?"

"If he threatened your safety, or the safety of my child I would."

"What did he do?"

"He told Pam he would burn this place to the ground if I did not see him, and if you did not see him."

"Putting everyone's lives at risk."

I nodded, "Our justice is very different from human justice Sookie. A Vampire really cannot threaten to sue, or have someone arrested for their crimes. Yes, we have a magistrate system, which tries our kind for transgressions, but it only works when someone remains to bring forth charges against the accused."

"And Bill would have made certain that no one remained?"

"He is methodical like that Sookie." I thought back to how he had disposed of his co-conspirators, the Ratrays back in Bon Temps. They could not betray him if they were dead. "Our justice is very black and white, I cannot even apologize for that, it is the way it has always been. The greatest threat against a Vampire is the true death, and it is usually the only threat that has any sway."

"You have killed before?"

"As mortal and Vampire, but never without just cause, never in sport, never for the thrill of it."

"And what about me Eric, have I ever killed someone?"

There was that sigh again, that slow exhalation from my chest that bought time, but did nothing to steady my fraying soul.

"Oh God, I have." She dissolved into tears again. Whether she wanted me or not just then I pulled her into my arms. Her warmth was so steadying for me, and she melted into me as she always had, relief washed over me, believing that she might not see me as the monster I felt I was. "Who?" She whimpered.

"Her name was Lorena, she was Bill's maker."

"I killed a Vampire?"

"You did my beauty." I was still quite in awe of her for doing that. I wished I could have been there.

"Why?"

I stroked her head, not really wanting to answer her.

"Eric, you have to tell me the truth, you have to tell me everything, even if you think it will hurt me. I need to know." Those blue eyes captured me again.

"Are you certain Sookie?" I was begging for her to change her mind, because I did not want that fear to claim her again. I could feel her mind on the very edge of it then, there in my arms and I could not bear the thought of losing her to it.

"Eric, please. I need to know why I killed someone."

"She was trying to kill Bill." The room fell silent for a moment but for her raspy breathing.

"I really loved him didn't I?"

"You loved the construct he created to deceive you." I saw no need then to sugar coat my feelings about Bill Compton. Sookie needed to see how much I hated him. "You and your friends Tara and Alcide rescued him from Lorena's clutches. But in the back of Alcide's van he nearly killed you. He was starving and almost drained you completely before Tara and Alcide pulled him away from you."

She closed her eyes, and wrinkled her forehead. "He was out of his mind with hunger." Another memory?

"He lost control of himself."

"You would never do that to me Eric." I wiped the tears from her eyes with my thumb.

"I would rather die than hurt you Sookie." She smiled at me, but she looked so weak. "But I am a much stronger man than he is, and not just because of my age."

"There is honor in you Eric." I don't know how she pulled these things out of the air to say to me, but it made me love her even more, if that was possible.

"Tell me everything he did to me Eric. I want the hatred I feel to be justified."

"Alright."

I took her hand, and turned her body just slightly on the couch to face me, and I started talking. I told her everything I knew about what Bill had done to her, about the Ratrays, and the assault that had left her near death, necessitating her taking his blood. Her body trembled as she looked at me, no doubt remembering the very different circumstances in how I had also tricked her into doing the same. I felt ill saying the words out loud, and that is a very odd occurrence in a Vampire. The irony was not lost on me; I asked her forgiveness for the same act I asked her to condemn another for.

"It wasn't the same Eric." She whispered under her breath, or perhaps it was just my mind, trying to convince me that she believed just that.

I told her about how Bill had been keeping a dossier on her family, tracing the fairy bloodlines at the behest of the Queen, and how he had been sent to Bon Temps to find her and secure her for the Queen. I know she wanted to ask me if anything Bill had told her was the truth, but I was glad that she hadn't. I could tell from his demeanor in my office, that he had loved her, and probably still did. I wasn't going to be the one to tell her that. Besides, she wasn't dumb; she could probably sense that desperation.

"He built everything on a lie didn't he Eric?" It was as if she could see into my head, as if she could read me. The bond didn't allow for that kind of communication, at least not as I understood it. But Sookie wasn't an ordinary person: maybe for us the bond could be something that deep.

I told her how Bill had abandoned her for his maker, even though he had been long ago freed of her overriding influence. That required a quick explanation of maker/child relationships, and I fielded a few questions about myself and Godric, and Pam, all answered to her satisfaction I thought.

I told her how her cousin Hadley had been used by the Queen and Bill, and even myself; for her information about Sookie, and the motivations behind those acts. I did not gloss over my own violence in finding the answers I needed; but she continued to look at me with the soft eyes that seemed to forgive me everything.

"You did it for me, to protect me." She whispered. True as it might have been it was still a revelation of the violence that I was capable of.

I told her about every time she had come into Fangtasia to ask for my help, for her brother, for Bill, and of every unkind thing I had said to her then. I told her everything that had happened in Dallas with Godric and the Fellowship of the Sun. I told her about everything that had happened in Jackson; at least as much as I knew, even revealing Alcide's dual nature, which she took quite well. Truthfully I think her system was overloaded with the supernatural and she dismissed it in simple shock. I told her about my holding her in Fangtasia against her will again, and about that kiss, that very first kiss. And I told her about my dreams, my own insides shaking as I remembered every desperate fantasy I had had of her. I opened everything to her, and invited her to plunge the stake into my heart. And then I apologized to her, begging her forgiveness, my head hung to my chest.

To her credit she had never pulled her hand away from mine, during all the time that I had been speaking. And, as an aside, even though it had been over an hour, our conversation had been uninterrupted, though I just knew that Pam was dying to find out why Bill Compton had stalked from the bar, clothes disheveled. She probably wondered why I hadn't killed him. I actually wondered that myself a bit, but it was probably better that he suffer for a while with Sookie's complete rejection of him. Losing her again had to be killing him; forgive the terrible pun.

"Will you take me home Eric?" Her voice was almost toneless, it didn't surprise me, I had given her more misery in that past hour than any human, or immortal for that matter could have possibly been able to take in and not be changed. The request made my heart sink. She was leaving me, she finally saw me as the monster I had been trying to convince her that I was, even as I was trying to convince her I wasn't. Does that sound odd? It doesn't make it any less true.

I pleaded my case. "Please Sookie, it isn't safe for you in Bon Temps, I can't protect you there."

"Eric."

"If you insist then at least let me get Diantha and Gladiola to go with you, to keep you safe." My chest felt sore, as if my dead heart had finally broken.

"Eric." Her hand brushed down the side of my face so delicately. I was desperately confused and I finally looked at her. "I didn't mean Bon Temps Eric. Take me home. I can't look at this place anymore, I can't sit here, I feel like I am going to crawl out of my skin if I don't get away."

"I don't understand." She was twining her fingers in my hair and all I wanted was to lay my head in her lap and breathe in the scent of her body so that I would never forget it, and so she would never be able to leave me completely.

"Take me back to your house, to your bed Eric. It is the only home I know right now, the only place I am safe, the only place where there are no bad memories." She laughed at herself. "Not that I have many memories, but you know what I mean." Her eyes pleaded with me to understand.

"Nothing bad has happened to you there has it?"

"Nothing bad."

"Oh Sookie." I pulled her into my arms.

"Take me home and make love to me Eric, make me forget everything that has happened." I kissed her hard on the mouth, stealing a breath from her as I did so. I pushed away the horrible idea that her words brought up; had she done this to herself, to escape?

**Sorry, you'll have to wait just a bit longer, but trust me, it will be worth it, (at least I hope it will be worth it)**

**Happy V day**


	21. Chapter 21

Thank you so much for the reviews and your patience as I crafted this chapter. I hope that you are satisfied with our Viking. And I hope that you find his POV believable and honest.

Merick

Part 21

I kept every ugly thought, every suspicion that ate at my soul at bay as I laid her down on the coverlet of my bed. I wanted her to sense nothing from me but the passions I had for her, I didn't want her to see anything through the fledgling bond but the love I felt for her then, even if I couldn't say it out loud to her. I did want her to forget everything but me, and my body and the way my hands touched her, and my mouth kissed her. I wanted her whole universe to be me just then, because then I knew she would never leave me, or push me away. Selfish? Yes. But I was a narcissistic creature born of a thousand years of self-centered indulgence, give or take. Sometimes I liked just being that thing, that single purpose was so easy; it didn't hurt so much. I wasn't sure exactly when the Viking Prince had given way to this Eric that cared so much for the feelings of a mortal girl, probably the day she walked into my bar. 'Of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world, she walks into mine'. I didn't have the fedora, though I maybe had the suave of Bogart, but the line was just as apt. She'd walked into my life, well, more like imposed herself on my life, and I hadn't been able to look away since. I needed her.

The blue of her eyes sparkled in the half-light of my room. I'd lit candles all around the bed, on the dresser, in the wall sconces, on the bedside table. Like the real wood fireplace in the great room, the flames kept the memory of my human life alive, and while you might not think that a thousand year old link would really be important given everything I'd seen in the years since it ended, it was important to me. I'd spent the millennia looking for the thing that killed my family; they were as much a part of me now as they were then even with the quest completed. In fact, it had become more important to me since Russell's demise, to keep them alive in my immortal heart; it was the way of my people.

I looked down at her, and combed her long blond hair out into a halo around her head, I felt her fingers twine through my hair again and I could not help but smile at her. I could smell the warmth of the sun still on her, spiced with the salt of the anxious despair that had possessed her and it brought out such a powerful need in me to protect her, and to have her. She was still wearing the white sundress, the hint of her tan still kissing her skin, made all the more evident by the white eyelet fabric. It had a sweetheart neckline, which is to say that it plunged just modestly between her breasts, the fabric like the top of a heart shape covering the crowns, but leaving the medial swells exposed to me. If I could not have smelled her arousal beginning, or heard the beat of her heart quicken, just watching the rise and fall of her beautiful chest would have told me everything I needed to know about how much she truly wanted me.

With a careful hand I began to undo the buttons at the front of the dress, folding the soft fabric to the side with each inch exposed until her breasts were revealed to me. She wore nothing under the dress, she had no need, her body was young and firm, yet as pliant as I chose to make it, as I brushed my fingertips down her breastbone, and felt her quiver for me.

"I am so sorry my hands are cold." I whispered into her ear, nipping at the velvety lobe, and pulling it into my mouth to tease, without drawing her blood.

She moaned for me and pushed her skin against my hand even harder.

"I want to feel the weight of your body on mine Eric, I want to feel your blood inside me." Her hands reached for me, pulling me to her, driving her lips against mine. My fangs dropped and I drove them through my lower lip, not even feeling the winch of pain, only wanting to give her the blood. She took it as if it was life itself, tracing my mouth with her tongue, curling every drop into her throat as well as any Vampire would have. To watch her, and to hear her only made me that much more desperate for her, and I struggled out of my shirt so that I could lay out over her and feel her heaving chest against mine.

"I will make you hot." She spoke out between mouthfuls of my blood, and her hands reached down to take the swollen rod, straining against my pants. I roared for her, so barely able to keep control of my desires. Her hands were stronger than I had imagined they could be, fueled perhaps by my blood, and she had my pants undone, and pushed away from my hips in a very fluid movement. I pushed the skirt of her dress out of the way and tore the lacy underwear in my lust, plunging myself inside her with more force than I had ever dared use before. Her scream was absolute music, and the arms that encircled me, and forced my hips against her even harder was almost better than the scent of the blood between us.

The tear on my lip healed quickly without her insistent mouth pulling on it, and so I slashed it anew, forcing the blood against her again, hearing the rivulets as they flowed from her ruby lips, and down the side of her throat to puddle against the bed sheets. I continued to force myself against her and inside her, stealing the cries into my own throat as they escaped hers. Fingernails dug into my back, opening further scratches making the air heavy with the scent of our blood, mingled with the beeswax of the candles that continued to sputter as flame met impurities in the tapers.

"Gods Eric!" Her cry was my own, I had never heard her refer to my pantheon before with such abject familiarity as in that cry, and I felt her release in my mind even before I felt the convulsions that drew me deeper still, milking the essence from me as I gave myself to her with a roar, stifled only when I sank my teeth into the crown of her breast and pulled a mouthful of sweet blood into my throat.

The sheets were covered with blood, as were we, as I held her in my arms, feeling her panting chest against my skin as her heart finally began to slow. I envied her, having that refraction, those purely physical moments to regain her composure, because it was denied me. There was no racing heart, and no breath to catch, and at times like that I actually regretted that one lost part of my humanity. Lying in the arms of one's lover, trading careful caresses as the bliss brought you to sleep was not something I was used to sharing with a partner, but of course, I had never had a partner like Sookie, one that I wanted to still be wrapped around when the moon rose. With careful fingers I wiped the blood from her face, and that, which had dried, I cleaned with long drawn out strokes of my tongue, tracing down her beautiful neck. She moaned quietly.

Not to give myself undue credit, but the wound on her chest was small, despite my ardor, and though she flinched as I touched it, it too was quickly soothed by a few drops of my blood from a pricked finger. She had enough of my blood in her that it would have healed on its own given a few more minutes, but where was the fun in that?

And speaking of fun, and sadly, a little bit of discomfort, I brought my mouth down to her thighs intending to continue my ministrations on skin that was tinted with a pinkish hue from the blood my passionate thrusts had torn from her. When I touched her there, I thought most tenderly, her moan was one of pain.

"Sookie? I am so sorry." Bless her; she tried to shrug off the obvious discomfort, which I could hear both in her voice, and in my mind.

"Never apologize for your passions Eric." She stroked my hair.

"I never meant to hurt you my Beauty."

"I will be fine Eric."

"I can help, if you will trust me."

"With my life Eric." It made me tremble just to hear her words.

I took her hand and held it tightly as I carefully, even more carefully than before, brought my mouth to the inside of her thighs and tenderly washed the blood from her skin. The scent of both of us was heavy in my nostrils as I again scratched a finger with the point of a fang, and coaxed my own blood from it. Gingerly I drew the ruby paint between her legs, at first she tensed, I could feel the muscles turning to knots. But as the blood flowed, and I traced it over her she began to relax. I whispered her name as I slid the finger into her depths, turning it slowly to let the blood touch each part of her, where I had hurt her. She moaned for me and I pushed harder against the muscular walls.

With feather light movements I brushed my thumb over the bundle of nerves at her entrance, and let my finger massage against her harder. Her muscles relaxed to me. My name fell from her lips; I loved it when she said my name.

"Gods, Eric."

I slide my body up hers, my hand still stroking her, to take a gentle kiss from her mouth before she came for me again. It was so peaceful, and I felt her exhaustion in my mind as her body finally collapsed, well spent into the sheets and her eyes closed.

"Sleep my beauty." I kissed her again and she managed a weak smile for me.

"Thank you for bringing me home Eric."

"You will always have a home with me Sookie." I kissed her forehead and drew a sheet over her body. It didn't matter that it was stained with blood, not that she could see it, I liked my sheets black, and silk. To my eyes it made the perfect picture. My lover, curled into the finery like her skin, golden hair, and the remnants of blood around her as much as the sex. If I could have painted that would have been the scene to create, but as it was I committed it to memory, not knowing how much comfort that image would bring me in the days to come.

I leaned in to kiss her again, and I whispered to her,

"I love you Sookie." Her response to me was only gentle breathing, as my lover had fallen to sleep finally. I left her in peace.

**Sooo,….**


	22. Chapter 22

Part 22

I had only told two people in the whole world that I loved them, and meant it as I had meant it when I spoke it to Sookie. My mother, who had given me life, and Godric, who had given me immortality. It wasn't a sexual thing, love born on lust or desperation, but more than emotion born on admiration. My mother was the only world I knew for the first few years of my life. Till I was old enough to wield a sword and an ax, and pull a boat through the water on the strength of my arms and my oars, she was everything to me. She would wash me, and help me dress, she would braid my hair and tell me the stories of our people long before I was allowed into the great hall of my father to hear the tales as they were told by men. She sang to me, and stroked my head as fell asleep, and soothed the wounds of blade and pride that were inevitable as a child. Even as I grew I would always show that love to my mother. To my father it was respect, and it was honor, and even to the day of his death I never uttered the words to him, it was not proper. But when I bid my mother a good sleep each evening that I withdrew from her, I told her that I loved her.

Godric was the only world I knew for many years after my change. He taught me, as my father did and as the men in the clan did, but he loved me, and protected me as I stumbled through the darkness as a young one. He fed me until I learned to feed myself, and he lay beside me at night, as a mother does her offspring, until the day I came into my power, and even after that he would share the warmth of his kills with me. And we would talk, and tell tales, and gird ourselves for the battles that lay ahead; much as I had done with my men. But he was my maker, and whether it was the blood, or the commradery born on centuries, I loved him, and I knew that my life would not be the same without him, just as I had felt the loss of my mother pierce me to my very core. I had wept for two people, the same ones I had loved. One, tears of salt, the other, tears of blood, as was the custom for the both the peoples I had within me.

This isn't to say that I hadn't loved others over the past millennium. I loved Pam, as my child, and as my friend, but there was not the same depth between us, even if we had shared a bed at one point. She was stubborn, and headstrong, much as I was for Godric as a youngling, perhaps he had more patience for me than I had for Pam. I would die to protect her, and I would probably cry for her should she be hurt, but her absence did not cause an ache in my gut, nor did the unkind words she threw at me, not like they had from my mother, and Godric, or would from Sookie. On the contrary, when she questioned me I often felt ire, anger or annoyance, along with a grudging respect, because, for all her 'tact', she was often right. I had also loved my wife. I had loved her because she cared for my home, and for my children, and she ran a household as I ran the clan, which gave me less worry about it, and made me seem even stronger for having such a powerful woman in my keep. I was never cruel to her, never touched her when she did not desire it, or beat her for some perceived transgression, or internal frustration. She was a good woman, and a proper wife for a king, and I loved her for that. She had grieved for my death, of that I had no doubt, but as a practical woman, raising the future king she would have found herself another powerful man to align herself with after a suitable period of mourning. I did not begrudge her that; in fact it had given me great comfort to know that she would have done it, because it meant that my children would have been safe.

I looked back at the door to the bedroom, that I had shut behind me as I had exited, leaving Sookie to sleep. It was still quite early in the night for me to sleep, and I did not feel the mortal exhaustion that she did. Besides, Pam had pushed a thick folder into my hands as we had finally left the office, telling me that I needed to look over the month's invoices, and purchase orders. The look in her eyes said that I had better do it, as subtly as a child dared admonish her maker for dereliction of duty. Arthur had offered to drive us home, an offer I took him up on, as Sookie was in no shape to fly with me again, and I had left my car in the garage. As he departed to fetch his keys I ensured that Pam called a repairman for the door, and I asked her for the security footage for the past few days. She promised to email it for me, 'if I bothered to actually check my email'. Then she sneered at me, and wrinkled up her nose at me in mock annoyance. I had always liked her nose. It was cute. One day I would have to tell her that, and then duck to avoid whatever it would be that she picked to throw at me.

So I sat at my desk and turned on my laptop. As it booted up; the funniest expression for a piece of technology, I thought, because all I could visualize when I heard it, or though of it, was pulling on my old leather boats before going out to battle. It might not have been the true origin of the term, but it amused me. Perhaps I was just old fashioned like that? I opened the file and read through the top pile of papers.

Humans drank a great deal of beer, and wine coolers, whatever the appeal in those was; either choose wine or a soda, but not both. Ah whatever, they made me money just the same. There was also an order for something called Clamato juice, apparently for a tomato and vodka based drink. I supposed the humans thought it looked like blood and so it amused them enough to pay $7.95 each. Again, who was I to question such tastes? Profits were holding steady, despite the recession, and there seemed to be a few opportunities to renegotiate some contracts, seems that there were a number of reputable companies that wanted to work for us now. I jotted a few notes for Pam, ran them up to her living room, and then returned to view the footage on the computer.

I found everything from the night Arthur had found Sookie until just before we had returned that evening, Pam had been thoughtful enough to send the footage of Bill, sulking at my bar, drinking his vile TruBlood, watching everyone around him with a scowl that said that he was just as prepared to feast on them as the warm bottle in his hand. At least he looked like a vampire.

I watched the footage in reverse chronological order, that is not to say backwards, but going back in time, to see who stood out; besides Bill of course, and what faces continued to appear. I watched the night that Diantha and Sookie were at the bar with particular interest. The image of her in that blue shirt, shocked me again, it was so unlike the Sookie I had known, not really in a bad way, she was still beautiful, but I wasn't used to seeing her so overtly sexual. It made me hungry and upset, all at the same time. Perhaps it was worse watching the other men watch her? I'd seen a few in person, before Pam had dragged me off the dais, metaphorically speaking, but to see all the ones I hadn't known about before, leering at her, especially when her back was turned, nudging their comrades and no doubt making lewd comments about 'getting into her pants'. It was wonderful to watch her dance again though, she moved without inhibitions, possibly because she didn't remember any reasons to have them. It wasn't that she was spectacular at it, she just looked happy, and the grace came from that. No one in the club was going to win any contests, that was for certain, kids now a days just gyrated to the music anyways, and Fangtasia always played music with a beat. The dancers insisted it was much easier to plan their routines. I had my doubts but it wasn't worth arguing over.

I tried not to be fixated on Sookie, and forced myself to look around at the others who were watching her. A growl rose in my chest as one reached out to touch her, and put his hand on her arm as it leaned on the bar. I saw Arthur's eyes flick to him briefly, but Sookie simply acknowledge him with a smile. I knew she was trying out the telepathy with the human contact, because soon enough she pulled her arm away and turned back to Arthur who had maneuvered himself closed to the girls to keep watch. I don't know why I was feeling jealous. Sookie was perhaps fifteen feet from where I sat at my desk, in my bed, surrounded by the evidence of our lovemaking, and our blood. I could feel her in my mind, and she could feel me. It would be my arms that would enfold her as soon as I was done watching the video, and my body she would push herself against for comfort. She wasn't with touchy guy from the bar. I shook my head for no one to see, still a little uncertain how I had turned into the Eric that was presently in my chair, scrolling on my laptop.

My attention was drawn away from my introspection when a woman came into the bar, the woman Sookie must have been talking about when she asked me about whether or not my employees slept with customers. If she hadn't meant to disguise herself from the patrons, then happenstance had fallen in her favor. Her hair was long and dark, and fell straight around her face; she made no move to tuck it backwards behind her ears so it was very difficult to make out any features. She was wearing gloves, as Sookie had mentioned, opera gloves by the look of them, as I could not discern a cuff. Her coat was long, and dark, more of a cloak, and I could have sworn there was a large hood to it, though it lay flat against her shoulders. The fashion seemed gothic, which would not have been very out of place in a Vampire bar, as much as I hated it. It was not beyond the realm of possibility that Arthur had a girlfriend who liked to play vampire with him. She didn't have a drink, only standing at the end of the bar, speaking with him over a few minutes time span; which technically didn't make her a customer, so Arthur was free to see her as he wished. They did seem quite familiar with each other, and Arthur seemed a little smitten with her, his expressions softened when he spoke with her, losing the generally suspicious nature that I was growing to appreciate in a bartender. The woman reached out and stroked his face in a very intimate kind of gesture, and then departed, and almost immediately Arthur went back to work.

I watched the interchange over and over again a few more times. Each time I did I felt something odd about it, but nothing I could put my finger on exactly. I scanned the rest of the footage but saw no one but the weekday regulars, a few tourists, and a group of college students. The woman never appeared again, and neither did anyone else sinister looking.

With another human sigh I shut down the computer. The sun was going to rise soon, and the business had made me weary. I made a note to ask Arthur about his friend the following night, and then I retreated to my bed, and to the arms of my beauty.


	23. Chapter 23

Just to clarify, I've set this story after Katrina, which means I don't have to deal with SA, and that when Eric refers to some New Orleans' sites it is after that terrible devastation. I think that may happen later in the books, but it worked for me here, just in case you were wondering.

Part 23

Something woke me, it wasn't nightfall yet, I knew that much, and a quick check of the clock showed me that it was only just past two in the afternoon. Sookie wasn't in bed, but I could still feel her presence close by, which was probably why I hadn't woken as she had left me. I wrapped myself in a robe and opened the door of the bedroom. There was no danger to me, the basement was quite light tight. She looked up at me, just putting down her phone; presumably the ring of that was what had awakened me prematurely.

"Eric? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." I hardly registered the words; I was looking at her hair, her beautiful, long blond hair, pulled up in a ponytail once again. A shiver ran up my spine, which really was just irrational looking back on it.

"Eric? What's wrong?" She must have thought that I was sleepwalking or something, I can't imagine the stare was comforting, though at least it wasn't accentuated by a gap-mouthed expression of disbelief.

"Your hair."

"Yes?"

"You're wearing it up?"

"I've been writing." She patted the journal, lying beside her on the couch. I hadn't seen it there. "It kept falling in my eyes."

"Of course." I muttered to myself, it was practical and quite reasonable. I didn't know why I'd been so upset. Well, yes I did. It reminded me of all the times I'd seen her before, when she'd been with Bill, when she hadn't been mine. It had made my gut flip-flop.

"You don't like it up?" She made to pull it out but I stopped her, sitting beside her on the small couch.

"No, it's fine Sookie."

She screwed up her forehead at me, knowing I was lying, and yanked out the elastic anyways.

"I'll wear it down."

"I'm being petty Sookie."

"It reminded you of something?"

I combed out the strands; curling them in my fingers and then letting them fall over her shoulders carefully.

"You've been writing?" She sighed at my pitiful attempt to change the subject.

"I wanted to write down everything you told me about yesterday, about the things Bill did to me. And I wanted to write down about how scared I felt about everything." She smiled weakly up at me and played with the placket of my robe, embroidered with a curling dragon. "Until you brought me home." I leaned into her and kissed her forehead. "I've been so caught up in my own misery I'd nearly forgotten that all of this was meant to threaten you somehow Eric, and you've done so much to restore my memory instead of searching for what that threat is."

"It is hard for me to see any of this as a threat Sookie, not when it has brought me you. And besides, when we find the person, or persons who have done this to you, we will have all our answers."

She looked thoughtfully down at the phone in her hand just then, and then back up at me.

"Eric, do I have any money?" Apparently she was learning how to change a subject as fluidly as I had.

"You mean in your purse? I don't know, I didn't look."

"No, not like that. I found a credit card in my bag and I just wondered, if I went shopping, if I could pay it off?"

I had some knowledge of her broader finances; mostly because of the fees I had paid her to accompany me on my little trips. She had been very honest with her requests then, and I was well aware that her job at Merlotte's didn't pay enough to resurface her driveway though it was in desperate need, or replace her rusted hatchback.

"I don't know that you have a great deal of money put away Sookie." I tried to be as tactful as possible in telling her that I suspected she was mostly broke.

"Oh." She seemed a little flat at my answer. "Diantha just called, she and Gladiola want to take me shopping. I thought it would be nice to get some things, that suitcase wasn't big and I'm running out of stuff."

I was an idiot.

"Sookie, of course you should go shopping. Here," I rose from the couch and went to my safe. Opening it I pulled out an envelope of bills and handed her a substantial wad, a thousand dollars at least. It was good to be the boss.

"I can't take this Eric." She tried to force it back into my hand.

"Of course you can. I am the one keeping you away from your home and all your things. You are in my care now, and I say you should go shopping. Spend it all; tell me if you need more, I'll pay your credit card bill. And go someplace nice to shop. I insist."

"Eric?"

"Please Sookie, it would make me very happy if you did this. Buy yourself some beautiful things, you deserve them."

"Umm, okay then, I guess."

I was glad she hadn't fought me on that. I would have hated to have had to insisted on the matter. I wasn't a very pleasant person when I didn't get my way, especially when I hadn't had enough sleep.

"I'll just call Diantha back and tell her I'd like to go, she said she could pick me up and we could have dinner out too." I loved that she was allowing herself to get excited about going out, her voice had risen with an innocent happiness that I hadn't heard in a long while, and I knew she would be in excellent hands with Diantha and Gladiola.

"I'll see you later at the club then I guess?" I asked, not completely certain about her plans.

"Yeah, I'll have them drop me off there after dinner. I can model everything for you." She grinned; I sincerely hoped that there would be a stop at Victoria's Secret. I kept that thought to myself and I headed back to bed. I was hanging up my robe when a thought occurred to me, perhaps born on the recently viewed surveillance footage.

"Sookie?' I called out.

"Don't worry, no club clothes, they aren't very practical anyways." She answered.

Maybe she knew me too well?

It was odd waking up without her in the house, I knew it had only been a few days, but things just felt empty. I had gotten used to talking to someone when I woke; besides Pam, and it was different walking around in silence as I washed and dressed and checked my messages and the mail. I debated phoning Sookie, just to see how things were going, but I didn't. Though I did check my phone and finally found a message from Mr. Cataliades, telling me that he was going to be emailing me a file that I should look at, at my earliest convenience. Apparently not checking my email regularly was a habit many people knew about. I settled back down at my desk, it was far too early to go down to the club, and I flipped open my laptop again.

As he had promised, the file was there, the transcript of a telephone conversation he'd apparently had with a local witch. It seemed that they were okay talking to demons, just not vampires, and, as per the invoice at the end of the email, not too shy about selling out their own kind for money.

'I hear you're looking for information 'bout a memory spell?'

'I am.' That line was credited to Mr. Cataliades, the other ones were simply labeled 'caller'. I noted that the colloquialisms of the language that this person had used were faithfully reproduced.

'You know dat's a specialty of one family, don't you?'

'Do tell?'

'Anything in it for the information?'

'Always.'

'Ever hear of the Stonebrooks?'

If he hadn't, I had, Marnie, who went by Hallow, and her brother Mark.

'I have.'

'They're quite famous for it, hear tell they even spelled a vamp once.'

That would have been me.

'But the Stonebrooks are dead. Did they pass their secrets on to anyone?'

'Stonebrooks didn't share much, 'cept with family. 'Was their Mama taught them kids the ways of mixing ash and herb.'

'So if someone else was using their spells?'

'Gotta be someone close to 'dem. Why don't you have a look 'round Charity, you get you some answers 'der.'

Charity was a hospital in New Orleans, but it had been closed after the hurricane. The caller must have meant University Hospital, at least if I was looking for records. I'd never had the need or the pleasure of visiting either institution, but it was an interesting direction indeed.

The rest of the conversation as transcribed was of little interest to me, mostly dealing with a cashier's cheques to be picked up in the New Orleans office, blah, blah, lawyer stuff, as Pam would say. I paid Mr. Cataliades so I didn't have to read those things.

The email went on to say that he was going to be requesting information from the hospital about Marnie Stonebrook and her brother. His line of thinking was that there might be another sibling out there; a sibling with motivation to harm me. I agreed with his reasoning, but not his methods. It could take weeks to get a hospital to open up medical records if they ever would, but it wouldn't take me long at all to get what was needed. I put on a tight black tee shirt, and my blue jeans, a sport coat, and pulled my hair back into a leather lace at the nape of my neck, and I left for New Orleans.

One of the first things my father taught me was to walk like a king, eyes forward, back straight, determined look, focused on my objective and nothing else. It might have looked ridiculous on a six year old, but it served me well from seven on. I walked right through the front doors of the hospital, asked for directions to medical records, and didn't even have to glamour anyone to find it. Of course, it never hurt to look good while doing it.

Once there I leaned down on the counter on my elbows and flashed my brightest smile at the lady sitting behind the glass wall and asked if I could please be allowed back to find the records on the Stonebrook family. I would have liked to believe it was my dazzling personality that got me access, but I knew better. In a few minutes she'd put up her 'Be Right Back' sign and was accessing the electronic records for me. I rested a hand on her shoulder, and leaned in to read the screen. I watched the screen roll through two birth certificates, a death certificate, and some Emergency Room notes, mixed amongst other sheets, scribbled with medical jargon, and obviously scanned from some paper chart or note pad. I wondered how any pharmacist could actually read a doctor's prescriptions after viewing that gobbledygook. I knew it wasn't going to be as easy as I had hoped to decipher it all.

I suggested that my helpful new friend might want to print out the file for me, and after a few minutes of watching the antiquated hospital printer spit out one sheet at a time I had a decent pile to take with me and mull over at my leisure. I tucked it into an envelope, at least the hospital still had those around, and returned my friend to her post, none the wiser for what had transpired. I strode out, looking every bit as if I owned the place, and walked back over to the cemetery where I had sat with Sookie only the night before, which actually was not far away, when you walked at the speed I did.

It wasn't that cemeteries were particularly favorite haunts of mine, it would be a little odd for a dead man to enjoy hanging around decaying corpses, and marble monuments to lives well lived, unless I was displaying myself to whatever forces of nature I had beaten in a supreme 'fuck you', or, I was mourning the fact that I had no such memorial. Hell, I could build myself a statue if I ever got that truly melancholic. There wasn't anyone left to mourn me anyways. No, people left you alone in a cemetery, they didn't try to make small talk, or ask you for the time, or try to take your picture for their trip scrapbook. I didn't even have to snarl at anyone to make them go away. It was a win win for me as I saw it. Wrong again.

I had barely gotten through the birth certificates for Marnie/Hallow and her brother when I was disturbed. At first it was just a scent on the air, wet dog, and something sweet; an incongruous mix to say the least. But it only took me a moment to sort them out, and I'm not even a werewolf.

"I know you're there." I spoke out to the darkness to my left, "Even if you did try to approach me from down wind."

It wasn't the scent of the sweetness so much that helped me to pinpoint its source, but the pang in my gut, the addiction no vampire who had ever tasted it could get out of his system.

"And you brought yourself a little protector too I see."

"At least all your senses haven't been dulled by your hormones Vampire."


	24. Chapter 24

Bring on the Fairies,…

Part 24

She stepped out of the shadows looking breathtaking, except for the fact that I did not have breath to give her. She was six foot tall with willowy legs that showed off exceptionally well underneath the liquid looking drapery she wore. Her hair was long, and flowing and dark and I could just imagine the delicious points of her ears hidden beneath the strands. Her skin looked like fresh milk, and almost glowed with an internal translucency that set off her red lips and almond eyes. To describe her as exotic would not have done her justice. I knew, without hesitation that I was in the presence of a full blood fairy, or perhaps, it was that she was standing in mine.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of this interruption?" Her blood sang to me, but not nearly as powerfully as I might have thought it would.

"I came to see just how addled your brain has become, drunk on the blood of my people."

"And by insulting me you believe that you will find an answer?" I had not even bothered to stand up from my seat on the concrete bench. I was not giving her that acknowledgment she must have craved. Though I noted that she obviously knew about Sookie's background, which made her valuable to me as a source of information.

"Whatever it takes to get your attention Vampire." The wolf at her side growled at me, and actually took a step towards me. I looked it right in its yellow eyes and snarled, dropping my own fangs.

"Be quiet dog. I have a thousand years of blood and cunning on you, do not doubt that I could snap your neck long before your mistress here could draw that sword at her side and even pretend to do me harm." I'll give the young thing credit, it didn't back down, but it grew silent.

"Boys." The fairy began, "I did not come here to watch you two play useless games of one-upmanship."

"Then why did you come?"

"Your inability to solve the simplest of problems has me astounded Vampire."

Now I growled at her.

"You have had many days and still you have not uncovered the truth of the matter."

"You are speaking of Sookie Stackhouse then?" I raised my eyebrows and cocked my head in a most condescending manner at her.

"I was given to believe that you were an intelligent creature Vampire."

"Again you insult me Fairy. If you have answers why don't you simply give them to me? And if you do not, then I wish that you would leave."

"That is not the way things work between our kinds Vampire."

"I am tired of games and word play." I stood up, finally, collecting the papers and made to leave.

"Stop!" She roared out at me.

"Really? I do not take orders from you Fairy."

"Don't you want to save her?"

"She is safe Fairy, with me. And what concern is it of yours?"

"I have been charged with her wellbeing."

"Ah, so you are her Fairy Godmother then? Fine job you have been doing! Bill Compton nearly killed her twice. She's been locked up by the Fellowship of the Sun and nearly raped. She's been hunted by Kings and Queens for her blood, and now a witch has stolen her memories and is using her as a pawn to attack me. And you are supposed to be protecting her?" That seemed to unhinge the fairy just a little.

"She isn't dead, is she?" She yelled at me.

"No thanks to you!" I was angry, how dare this creature presume to tell me she was looking out for Sookie? She had done nothing to save Sookie from the heartache of the last year or so with Bill.

"Vampire!"

"What?"

"I have given you everything you need to find the answer, right there in those papers."

"Oh, so you are the one who called Mr. Cataliades are you?"

"I had someone do it."

"Just to keep at arms length from actually helping a Vampire eh? Do you have rules about that? Do you people value those rules over helping one of your own?"

"There is only so much," she began.

"And if you had not interrupted me from my reading perhaps I would have the answer by now."

"You should have had it from the beginning."

"Then tell me so I can help her!"

"Do you know what the greatest love of all is Vampire?"

"A terrible rock ballad from the eighties?" I did that on purpose, just to piss her off.

"My god you are the most frustrating creature I have ever had the misfortune to have come across Eric Northman!"

"So you do know my name." She ignored that.

"The love of a parent for a child Eric, that is the greatest love, and that is your answer!"

A parent? I tore through the documents again as she watched me. I found the Death Certificates, one, not two. The mother. Oh gods, it was the witches' mother. I looked back at the fairy, and she saw the revelation in my eyes.

"Yes Eric. You have it. Simple revenge."

"But why Sookie? How has taking Sookie's memories away harmed me?"

"I do not have an answer for that Eric. But the witch will, when you find her."

Part of me felt like I should thank the fairy, a small part, which was easily overridden, because I still felt the anger that she had not protected Sookie when she so easily should have been able to. Of course, if she had saved her from the spell then Sookie would not have been brought to me, and we would not have had the chance we had been given to discover each other. But still I felt as if something more ominous was looming ahead for us.

"Who are you?" I needed to know that at least before the fairy left.

"My name is Claudine, Sookie is my cousin."

"Then if she is family, please keep her from any further harm." I am not certain if my words sounded like an entreaty or an order, I imagine they fell somewhere in the middle.

"I will do what I can." She promised me, but somehow I was not convinced that what she could do would be of much help what with all these Fairy rules she seemed bound by. Having said that though, at least she was an ally and not another enemy or suspect. Her dog, well I couldn't speak for him, but I had to trust that if he had been chosen by the fairy that he must be trustworthy. Not that it meant that I was going to trust him for an instant.

"And you are certain that the Were here will not betray us? Marnie Stonebrook was a Were, he may have allegiances to her."

"He does not." I was assured.

"I am glad of your confidence Claudine. But as for my own."

The wolf quickly replaced itself with its human form, and standing before me was a young man, perhaps eighteen, with almost bright white hair and blue eyes; more suited to a malamute I thought to myself. His ability to shift seemingly at will was impressive.

"I have no ties to traitors Vampire." The accent was familiar to me.

He spoke well for one so young, and showed a pride that even overrode the shame of standing before me naked, and now unarmed.

"Daniel is not from Louisiana, or even North America. His sire was Swedish."

The fairy had chosen well, to ply me with one of my own countrymen was a good play. I nodded at him, willing to trust him just a little more.

"Very well. But if I should find him involved in any treachery I will kill him myself."

The growl that rose in his throat was still lupine, but I ignored it.

"I will take my leave of you then Eric, and trust that you will hunt down this witch and end this threat properly."

"You may be assured of that Claudine."

And with that, she and the boy wolf disappeared, and with them the sweet scent of her blood, which I had mostly forgotten during our conversation. Armed with the new information I took a trip to Mr. Cataliades' office and informed him of whom we were now hunting. Funnily enough he did not seem very surprised when I tossed the hospital file on his desk, you would have almost thought he had been expecting it.

I returned to Fangtasia feeling a little lighter of heart. Mr. Cataliades had assured me that he would put his best people on to the task of finding Marie Stonebrook; Marnie's mother. And I had also stopped by Papa B's place and told him the news as well. His happy smile, which he was rarely without, had broadened just a little bit to hear the news, and he asked if I knew where Marine and Mark were buried. I did not, sadly, but gave him the phone number for Alcide Herveaux. His pack had disposed of Mark for certain, and he would likely have a better idea than I would about the location of his remains. I wondered, as I flew home, how Alcide would feel about a phone call from a Mambo to ask about Were business. Hopefully Alcide had relaxed a bit since the last time I had seen him; he always had struck me as a little shy about his nature and life, when he should have been very proud as I saw it. There were not many Weres that I liked. Well, there was only one Were I could tolerate, and that was him.

Sookie practically flew into my arms as I entered the office.

"Eric!" Apparently she had had a good day, and she had taken out the ponytail. I swept her up, she really weighed next to nothing and I kissed her square on the mouth loving the way she tasted and the way she felt in my arms. No matter what curse might be laying in wait for me, having her arms to return to made it worth every challenge and battle.

"Hello my Beauty." I could not keep the grin from my face. "You seem very happy."

"I had a wonderful day with Diantha and Gladiola." I set her back down on her feet. "And we had a great dinner, and I bought all sorts of things." She gestured at the bags around my coffee table. Selfishly I was so pleased to see the black and pink VS bag in that pile.

"I cannot wait to see everything." Pam would have gagged, but I was absolutely serious. Sookie's mood made me forget about so many of my prevailing worries. For a few hours I was going to just let myself be happy, because before night's end I expected to hear from Mr. Cataliades and possibly Papa B, and maybe even Alcide Herveaux. I had not expected to hear from Sam Merlotte.

Sookie had shown me most everything, except the Victoria's purchases, but she had shyly promised that I would see them soon enough. I loved that she was still acting a little innocent about letting me see her in lingerie; whether it was true innocence or not did not matter; I suspected that it was mostly true. She was still coming into her power and sometimes she was strong, and sometimes she was not. I was just so pleased that it was me that she let hold her when things fell apart.

As she was repacking things I saw the phone on my desk light up, it was the bar's line, not something I normally answered, but I just had a feeling and I picked it up.

"Fangtasia." I spoke into the receiver.

"Eric?"

"Sam." I recognized his voice immediately. Sookie looked up, she knew the name, but I had no idea of how much she remembered of him. "What can I do for you?"

"Jessica came in here bawling her eyes out tonight. She said you've kidnapped Sookie and stolen her memories."

Good gods, Bill you bastard! Why do you always draw others into your plots? Oh yes, because you are spineless and you prefer manipulating others to achieve your ends and keep yourself at arms length, not unlike that fairy woman. Now I personally had no problem using other people, but they were not innocent people; whether I believed in Karma or not, I enforced it.

"I have done nothing of the sort Sam."

"Jessica seems pretty upset."

"Please Sam, consider the source." I had no idea how much of the truth Sookie had revealed to Sam, about what Bill had done to her. But Sam had certainly seen Sookie's misery first hand as her boss.

"So she isn't with you?"

"No, she is here with me." I looked over at Sookie who had a concerned expression screwed to her beautiful face. "She is just back from shopping with some girlfriends, would you like to speak with her?"

"Well yes, yes I would." Sam seemed quite stunned at my offer; obviously he had thought there was a grain of truth to Bill's nonsense. I held the phone out for Sookie. I knew she was concerned about taking it, I could feel it in her mind, but I smiled and nodded and whatever wave of reassurance I could send her I endeavored to. She took the plastic from my hand and brought it to her ear.

"Hello Sam." I was proud of her; she didn't make it sound like a question, which I knew it was for her.

"Sookie, well thank God, Jessica had me really worried about you."

"I'm okay Sam. Sorry I've been away from work for so long."

"Oh don't worry about that Holly is enjoying the extra shifts and Jessica has picked up lots of nights, I think she's saving for a car."

Just if you were wondering, I was not eavesdropping on her conversation, it just was not hard to hear Sam on the other end of the line, being as close to the phone as I was.

"Is it true?" He asked her. "About your memory?"

She forced a smile for no-one's benefit but her own and answered 'yes'. I hated the dichotomy on her face, her eyes misted with sorrow even with the smile. And I knew it simply mirrored the confusion in her head about whether she wanted her memories back or not, Sam's reappearance not helping the matter.

"Eric's been really wonderful at trying to find answers for me Sam."

I heard his pause, and I was immediately thankful she had not said 'sweet' in describing me. I had an image to uphold, even if Sam Merlotte didn't fall under my jurisdiction as Sheriff.

"I'm glad Sookie. When do you think you're going to come home?"

"Not till we know who did this Sam, not till Eric thinks they aren't a threat to me anymore. I don't want to be scared in my own house."

"You could always stay with me Sookie." His offer made me clench my teeth, I hoped Sookie hadn't seen my jealous reaction.

"That's really nice of you to offer Sam, but, I don't really know you just now, and I just don't think it would be right and all, to impose on you that way."

Good girl. Okay, it was what I was thinking; I am trying to be honest here about what happened. I had no desire to let her go live with a shifter, or anyone else for that matter.

"Can you tell Jessica not to worry please Sam?" Sookie looked at me and somehow I knew what her eyes were asking without her having to say it. I nodded at her, not feeling foolish at all. "She can come up to Fangtasia any time she wants to see me, if it will make her feel better."

"I'm sure it would." Sam didn't sound completely convinced to my ears, but I let it go. "I'll stop by your place and pick up your mail. Maybe Jessica can bring it up to you when she comes?"

"Thank you Sam. I'm really sorry I don't remember you."

"So am I Sookie." And after a pause he hung up the phone. I did not know if he was going to come up, or Jessica, I'd have preferred her just then, anything else to unsettle Bill Compton before I killed him.


	25. Chapter 25

Part 25

"You're angry Eric." She had walked behind me as I sat at my desk, still at the club, still reeling from Bill Compton's latest attempt to discredit me. I was trying to decide if it amounted to treason, but failing in that attempt. "Don't try to deny it, I can feel it in my mind."

"I am angry Sookie, angry that Bill Compton continues to try my patience with his lies." She began to rub her hands into my shoulders, trying to get me to relax. I turned the chair around slowly and she let her hands brush across my neck and then chest as I came to face her. I have never grown tired of the warmth of her skin on mine.

"I know the truth, and so do you, isn't that all that matters Eric?"

I pulled her into my lap and inhaled deeply of her scent, hoping it would clear my mind of the hatred I was feeling. I wanted to tell her that it was all that mattered, but I knew it was not. Bill Compton was a cancer. It was against our laws to kill another Vampire, but there were ways around every law.

"I have some news Sookie." I left the question of Bill Compton's imminent demise by the wayside as I shared the important revelations of the night with my lover. "I know the name of the person who has cursed you."

"You do? Really?" She seemed as disbelieving as Sam when I had told him that I was not keeping Sookie prisoner, and I felt a shudder run through her body as I held her.

"I do." I tried to soften my voice. "Her name is Marie Stonebrook. She is the mother of the witch who cursed me. It would not surprise me if Mr. Cataliades already has Diantha and Gladiola out looking for her."

"She couldn't hurt them, could she?"

"I have been given to believe that it is quite difficult to harm a demon, let alone kill one. But I am certain the girls will take every precaution." I felt Sookie sigh in relief, and soften into my arms again. I listened to her steady breathing for a good minute, but she did not ask me the question I expected. 'And what will you do when you find her?' In fact, she stayed quite quiet. I ran my fingers through the golden hair she had left long for me. I could feel the conflict in her mind, just as she felt the anger in my own. She was still so unsure about regaining the life she had led before coming to me. I hated to feel that uncertainty coming from her because it worried me that I was the cause. Doubt crept into my heart, not of her, but of the way I had perceived the situation between us.

"You do not think I have imprisoned you here with me, do you Sookie?"

"Eric? No, of course not." She crinkled her forehead into little lines and stared at me with a little pout that I just wanted to kiss.

"But I will not let you return home, and I keep you at my side, or at the side of trusted guardians constantly." I do not know why I was making the case against myself just then. "You spend all your waking time either here at Fangtasia or at my home."

"And all my sleeping hours in your bed." She whispered, her voice made me tremble.

"I've even changed your sleeping and waking schedule." I heard myself saying it, but it did not really register as she began to brush her fingertips against my face.

"If this is a jail, and you are my jailer then I never want my freedom."

She leaned in and kissed me hard on the mouth, my fangs dropped in response to her and I wrapped my hands tightly around her back and pulled her against me, wanting to feel her staccato breaths since I had none of my own to accompany the arousal that was rapidly overtaking my senses.

"You care for me like a was a princess, I haven't had to cook anything for myself since you brought me home, you have someone who cleans up after me, and you are always around at night to talk to so that I am never alone." She giggled, "You sent me shopping with a wad of cash the size of which I get the impression I've never ever held in my hands. And I spent it all. You've been honest with me about everything, and you've protected me from people who want to hurt me. And best of all," she ran her hands coyly down my chest, just tugging at the shirt tucked into my trousers, "you make love to me, and stay beside me every day. I feel like I don't have to worry about ever waking up alone, or that you'll leave me."

"I will not." I forced my mouth against hers again and parted her lips to draw her tongue into my mouth. She cut it against my fangs and the glory of her blood flowed into me, only making me hold onto her harder. And that was not the only hard thing about me just then. I saw the light on the phone start blinking once again, but that time I did not answer it. I was about to start pulling her shirt free from her jeans when there was a knock at the newly repaired office door.

"Eric?" Pam's voice disturbed my hunting. I sighed in that human gesture again. I felt Sookie's chest begin to twitter, she was laughing.

"Yes Pam?" I tried not to sound as annoyed as I felt just then.

She opened the door to find Sookie still in my lap, she raised one eyebrow at me and cocked her head as if to say 'really?'. It was not as if she had not walked in on me before but she seemed slightly more 'disappointed' shall we say. I snarled at her wordlessly, not the first time I had done that either.

"I need some help behind the bar please Eric."

"What happened to Arthur?"

"He just called, someone rear-ended him at a stop light, he's going to be a bit late as he sorts out the insurance."

Arthur is quite young; he still clings to the trappings of human life. Not to say that I don't own a car, but I rarely use it, only when I have to transport things that are too bulky to fly with, such as special orders for the bar that I do not trust to other carriers. Or when I need to chauffer special guests, like the one that was still sitting in my lap, still vibrating with laughter.

"Maybe I can help Eric?" I had not expected that response from her, spoken mostly into my shoulder. She put her head up and looked Pam. "I'm sure I can pour a beer and mix a drink. As long as no one asks for a cocktail." The hope in her eyes was beyond my ability to deny her.

"Yes Pam, put Sookie behind the bar, I will come as well, I can mix a cocktail if she can not." It sounded like an excellent idea to me, and like a bit of fun, something I had not allowed myself in a very long time; unless of course you counted the lovemaking. Surprisingly Pam did not disagree.

"We could probably sell a lot more drinks if it was you mixing the cosmos Eric; the ladies would just keep coming back." She looked at me with a familiar grin in her eyes that worried me. "Could you do it without a shirt on?"

"Do you want me to put on a Fangtasia tee shirt Eric?" Sookie was still sitting in my lap but Pam had left us alone.

"No, wear the purple top you showed me earlier, the one with the ribbons on the front?"

"Okay." She popped up from my lap and pulled out a beautiful light purple blouse. I liked it because it was high cut, so no one else would be staring at her décolletage, but it hung beautifully over her breasts, which offered the most tantalizing ideas of what lay beneath. Of course I did not have to imagine much as she pulled off her white shirt right in front of me, revealing a demicup bra that pushed those beautiful breasts up so that every breath made them quiver.

"Why must you tease me so Sookie?"

"Tease you?" She raised her eyebrows and pasted an innocent grin to her face. I pulled her into my arms again.

"With things that I cannot have right now." I buried my face in her neck and drew in a deep breath.

"Who says you cannot have it Eric?"

"Gods Sookie." My words were breathless and my fangs practically itched with desire of her.

"Do it." She urged. I needed no further prompting.

I bit into the soft flesh of her breast, raised above the satin cups of the bra. Her moan was music, and her blood absolute life. I took only a few mouthfuls, playing over her skin with my tongue as I did. Her arms held me softly, and I could feel her yielding to me. It was enough to rouse my passions fully, but I was able to release her somehow and she stepped back to pull the blouse over her head and then returned to my arms. I held her close and listened to her heart for just a moment longer. It was becoming plainly obvious to me that I could no longer conceive of a life without her in it.

"Stay with me forever Sookie." I whispered in her ear.

"I will." She answered so quickly that it startled me somewhat, but made me feel happy. It was another foreign feeling for me, but not an unwelcome one.

She pulled back and started to undo the buttons on my shirt, beginning at the top.

"We do not have time for that now." I grinned at her.

"Silly. It will make Pam happy. Let's go to work."

**Anyone need a drink?**

**Reviews are love.**


	26. Chapter 26

Part 26; Also known as 'a slow comfortable screw against a wall'

(Song by Jason Aldean, Don't You Wanna Stay)

While I have never doubted Pam's business acumen, we sold more cosmos and martinis that night than I could ever recall having done before. What impressed me most, and perhaps impressed is not the right word, perhaps pleased would be better, was the smile on Sookie's face the whole evening. There was just something about seeing that innocent happiness, not colored by the fear or doubt of missing memories and impending threats. No, it was just pure, and she was so playful. Perhaps I should send her shopping with the girls more often? She smiled with every drink she poured, and she looked so alive. She even gave me a few tips, which brought grins to my face. Especially when she told me that I was shaking the drinks too quickly, and demonstrated a slower method that was so blatantly sexual I could barely keep a straight face each time I prepared a martini with the stainless steel shaker.

"It's what the ladies want to see." She whispered to me when our backs were turned to the crowd. I am not certain I am doing the gesture justice with my meager description, but I will leave it to your imagination.

Arthur arrived after about an hour, apologizing profusely for being so late. He related that not only had this person run into him as he had been stopped at a light, but that he had insisted on paying him for the damage as assessed by the police who had attended the scene that very instant. Apparently he was concerned about reporting the accident to his insurance company and had Arthur follow him to a banking machine where he withdrew enough to cover the repairs plus extra for Arthur's trouble. It seemed very odd to me, but Arthur was in enough of an agitated state as evidenced by his stuttered explanation, and I knew that I was going to be questioning him later so I did not want to put him in a defensive posture too early by questioning the full veracity of the tale. As I was quite enjoying myself behind the bar I asked him if he would not mind attending to the door for the evening; and what could he say but 'of course Eric'?

The music played and I watched Sookie as she half danced behind the bar, skipping her feet around and sliding her hips about to my great delight. I was so taken with her private movements, because of course, I was the only one who could see them behind the elevated bar, that I reached out to put my hands on her hips a few times, just to feel the way she moved. She was beautiful.

The hours slipped by, the two of us trading glances and smiles, and covert touches. But finally I had to leave her there, as I did need to speak with Arthur about the woman who had come in the previous night. The crowds had dwindled owing to the late hour and the day of the week, a Wednesday as I recall, and Arthur had come inside some time back, so I excused myself from Sookie and took Arthur to one of the back booths to speak with him while still being able to keep an eye on the bar. I believe that he was nervous about getting a reprimand, as his demeanor changed significantly as I motioned for him to follow me. He had been nearly as animated as Sookie had been, watching her and watching the customers from an unfamiliar vantage point out on the floor. I had no concerns that he was sexually interested in Sookie, he was not that stupid as far as I could tell, but her attitude seemed to bring a smile to most everyone that evening. Even Pam had allowed the corners of her mouth to turn up as she watched her, when she thought no one else could see her.

"Arthur?" I began. "I need to ask you a question."

"Eric?" Yes, I had pegged it, he sounded very apprehensive.

"I want you to tell me about the woman who came in to speak with you the other night?"

I could see he was searching his memory to find the person I was speaking of.

"The one who wore the gloves?" I prompted.

"Oh, yes, Amy, she's a nice girl."

"And where did you meet Amy?" I had no problem asking the questions, even though a human might have found them obtrusive, Arthur knew better. Not only was I his boss, but also his Sherriff.

"We met at a movie." The answer sounded odd to me, though I could not say why just then. "She spilled her popcorn on me and we ended up talking."

"Not through the movie I hope?"

He did not get the joke and looked at me oddly.

"You have been seeing her for awhile then?"

"A month or so. Should I have told her not to come around the bar? If so, I really do apologize Eric. I told her where I worked, she just popped in."

"It is not a problem Arthur. I was simply curious."

He sort of bobbed his head up and down, unsure how to respond to me.

"Perhaps the next time she comes by you will introduce her to me." It was not a request. While she might have had absolutely nothing to do with what had happened to Sookie, I was not ready to dismiss her as simply another fangbanger looking for a vampire boyfriend. For all I knew she could have been a police officer sent to spy on the club for some perceived transgression. One did not get as old and as successful as I, by simply leaving things to chance. As I kept a close eye on the goings on at the club, as did Pam, I had no concerns that Arthur was passing on any information about illegal activities, but things can easily be misconstrued by minds that are not used to certain 'cultures' shall we say. He agreed that he would, but again, what choice did he really have? I looked back over at Sookie, she was away from the bar, which really didn't matter as there were only a few stragglers left in the club, mostly just sorting out their coats and their taxies. Owing to that, I sent Arthur home; he seemed quite relieved actually. Sookie was speaking with the DJ, an acquaintance of Pam's who worked week nights for me, in fact, Pam was over there as well, which put me in the mind of something conspiratorial.

"Ladies?" I walked over, trying my best to look charming.

Pam's friend nodded at me, and excused herself to fetch her own coat.

"You're okay with everything then Sookie?" Sookie nodded at her, which further raised my curiosity. "I'll walk out with you." Pam motioned after her friend, "and I'll lock up the front," she said to me before walking away, leaving Sookie and I alone.

"What are you three plotting?" I asked as I stepped towards Sookie, now finally alone with her in the bar.

"Can I ask you a question Eric?"

"Of course."

"Do you think you could dance with me Eric?"

"Dance with you?"

She nodded and looked over at the DJ's booth, I watched as she pressed one button on the console and a soft song started to play. I did not know it then, but I have never forgotten the lyrics. She held out her open hands to me, and I could do nothing but take them and pull her close. I do not make a habit of dancing, but knowing that Pam was gone and that it was just the two of us I wanted nothing more than to move the way Sookie had been moving earlier in the evening, especially pressed into her body.

I really hate to let this moment go

Touching your skin, and your hair falling slow

When a goodbye kiss, feels like this

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

Don't you wanna hold each other tight?

Don't you wanna fall asleep with me tonight?

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

We can make forever feel this way

Don't you wanna stay?

Let's take it slow, I don't wanna move too fast

I don't wanna just make love, I wanna make love last

When you're on this high, it's a sad goodbye

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

Don't you wanna hold each other tight?

Don't you wanna fall asleep with me tonight?

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

We can make forever feel this way

Don't you wanna stay?

Oh yeeah

Oh, you feel so perfect, baby

That it feels so perfect, baby

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

Don't you wanna hold each other tight?

Don't you wanna fall asleep with me tonight?

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

We can make forever feel this way

Don't you wanna stay?

She felt so alive in my arms, as we moved about the floor, between the tables, and holding her living, breathing warmth against me made me regret, for a brief moment, for the very first time in a thousand years, not being human. I wanted that warmth to return to her, I wanted to have her stop my breath; I wanted to feel my heart racing for her, not just the draw of my blood and hers. Not that she cared, I could just feel this wave of absolute contentment coming from our bond; or maybe that was just me?

"Eric? What would you say if I asked you to let me keep working here?" She whispered into my ear as the music faded to nothing, leaving us in the silent bar, her breathing and her heartbeat being the only sounds I could hear, the only ones I wanted to hear.

"I would tell you that I would call Sam Merlotte myself and tender your resignation this very evening." I whispered back, I could feel the smile grow on her face as it was still pressed into my shoulder. "Is that what you would like Sookie?"

She nodded. "That, and so much more."

Our dance had brought us across the floor, and back close to the bar. I picked her up and sat her on the counter top; she looked me almost directly in the eye that way. I bent to kiss her softly, the image of seeing her every night behind the polished wood filling my heart. I did not stop to consider that she might change her mind once she remembered the happy times she must have had at Merlotte's, I did not care about any of that right then. But I could see that Sookie's eyes were growing tired, and I realized that she had been up for a very long time, having been out in the daytime with Gladiola and Diantha long before coming to Fangtasia.

"I should take you home, you need to sleep Sookie."

"I don't want to sleep Eric. I want this night to last forever." Her plea was beyond my ability to object, and I knew how to give her strength.

"Then drink my Beauty." I took my thumbnail and dragged it along the side of my neck, opening a wound for her. I turned my head to expose the welling blood and beckoned her forward. It was such juxtaposition, she brought her lips to my neck, and I surrendered myself to her. The bliss was beyond my ability to describe. The feel of her warm mouth, the teasing of her tongue, coaxing the wound for more blood, and the sound of her suckling and swallowing from me, I could not stop my physical reaction to her, and she could feel it from my mind, the arousal that threatened my control. I felt her hand reach down to caress me, and she drew her hips closer to me, even as she continued to drink. I moaned for her and dropped my fangs; it was the most honest sound I could conceive of.

When her mouth gave up its purchase on my neck I felt both her hands light on my trousers, pulling to free me from them.

"Let me take you home Sookie, and make love to you there." I tried to ask, but my words were cut short by her lips pressed to my mouth.

"Here." She breathed even as she took more kisses from me, and she began to squirm out of her own jeans. I still am not completely certain how she managed to undress herself, but of course, I wasn't paying much attention to that at the time, I was too captivated by her mouth and the taste of the blood on her tongue to much care. I pulled her hips towards me even further, and she wrapped her legs around my waist. It took no effort to hold her and to brush my rock hard desire between her legs to meet her own desperate arousal. I loved listening to her delicate moans as I rubbed myself against the center of her pleasure very carefully. And finally I held her still and guided myself into her. Her scent, her heartbeat, the blood, had made me almost painfully swollen, and I felt the electricity as she encircled me, the strength of her walls rocking against me. I held her tight, and simply rested against her, feeling the building convulsions milking at me. We continued our dance and I took my time and made love to her very slowly, needing to draw out the connection between us, finally pulling her into my arms, and away from the bar, to drive myself into her so deeply she cried out for me.

Having been built so gradually, our climax, when we reached it, pulled roars from us both and stole the breath from her lungs and the control from my mind leading me to clutch at her so hard as to bruise her delicate skin, bruises that faded quickly because of my blood, now flowing in her system. I apologized with kisses, planted on her face and her throat, as she collapsed into my arms. I wished that the song would start again, just so that I could continue to sway with her there.

She fell asleep in the car as I drove her home, and I carried her to bed.


	27. Chapter 27

Part 27

As she slept I looked through information on my computer and made phone calls; my associates were used to hearing from me at all hours of the human night, and the ones who objected were removed from my payroll. Mr. Cataliades had the girls out searching last known addresses for Marie Stonebrook, and he was trying to obtain information on her banking and credit cards, still not an easy task in the middle of the night, but not impossible. It was such a different type of pursuit than I was used to. It was normally me, and Pam, or Godric, or another convenient ally, on the ground, using our senses to track our prey, or just me alone. Sitting back, as I was doing in this case was unnerving, I was not a king, not part of the Authority, not one to assign tasks this important to others. This was not like going to the airport to pick up a case of liquor; this was a threat against my life, or at the very least my wellbeing, and Sookie's as well. But what choice did I have? Or rather, what choice was I giving myself? I had made myself into her protector to the exclusion of all other things because I had allowed myself to fall in love with her. Not that I was berating myself for that decision. But since I had not even had the courage to tell her that yet, I wondered at my fortitude to deal with a great many things. It was a cascade of self-doubt as I sat in my silent rooms. And it was driving me close to the edge. I wanted to break something, preferably something consequential.

I heard Pam come in upstairs and decided to go and speak with her; I was not in a state to retire as much as the thought of wrapping myself around Sookie's body was appealing; she did still carry the scent of our lovemaking on her skin, and that was nearly as enticing as her blood, perhaps more. I do not know exactly what I expected from Pam as I climbed the stairs and quietly shut the door behind myself, but I knew that she would see the logical side of things, and likely offer me some valuable insight, likely some I could not see for myself just then.

"Oh, so you are home then." She greeted me as I came around into the formal living room of the house. She was hanging up her wrap in the front hall closet. "Did you two have fun after I left?" her raised eyebrows were humorous, as was her smirk, but I was not quite in the mood for that. I felt like sparring with someone.

"What Sookie and I may or may not have done is none of your concern."

"Sure it is." She flopped herself down in a chair to continue grinning at me. I noted that her skin had a healthy pink sheen to it, which meant that she had fed on someone before coming home, her bartender friend perhaps? "You're always so much easier to get along with when you're getting some regularly."

"So that would apparently be your problem then Pam?" I shot back, collapsing in the matching chair.

"You love me and you know it Eric."

"Yes I do." I huffed at her, not perhaps the most dignified thing I could have done.

"So what is going on Eric? I would have thought you'd be all doey eyed and gooey after having your alone time with Sookie. You certainly were fun to watch behind the bar with your cocktail shaker."

I objected to her characterization of me, and dropped my fangs with a growl that she did not take seriously enough for my liking.

"Eric, I know you are frustrated." But she did understand me like no other person on the planet.

"That is an understatement Pam."

"And you want to kill something." That was closer to the truth. "You just have to figure out who."

"I already know that Pam, her name is Marie Stonebrook, the mother to those two brat witches that tried to oust me earlier this year." I had not had the opportunity to tell Pam about my discovery, or perhaps I had not made the opportunity.

"I see." I could tell that something was running around behind those eyes, eyes that had suddenly lost their sheen.

"I just have to find her so I can wring the life out of her and end this uncertainty."

"And what about Sookie's memories?"

"She doesn't want them back." Perhaps I was speaking out of turn on her behalf, but it seemed to me that she had dropped enough clues in her comments to me that I could infer the truth, or the truth as I wanted it.

"She will hate you if you take away her only chance at restoring them Eric."

I knew it, not that I had wanted to acknowledge it to myself, it was just easier to think about killing Marie Stonebrook than the ramifications of what would happen when Sookie recaptured her life. Despite her beautiful words to me I still harbored the doubt that she would stay.

"She is happy right now Pam." I said it for myself not her.

"I know she is Eric. You'd have to be blind not to see how much she loves you." Just to hear Pam say it made my chest quake, as if my long dead heart was trying to skip a beat. "You've bonded with her haven't you?"

"I have. How does that knowledge make you feel Pam?"

"As I said before, you are much easier to get along with when Sookie is with you. And you are my maker Eric." She leaned forward and put her hand on my knee. "I want you to be happy. Tell me what I can do to help you out of this mood?"

"Nothing. I need answers and I need them yesterday." My frustration was palpable. "I want to go hunting."

"Then go. I'll say here and keep an ear open for Sookie if she needs anything."

"You would do that?"

"She's growing on me."

I took Pam up on her offer and went out hunting, not with a direction in mind, but just opening myself up to the evil that was always present on the streets of Shreveport. Not that I am particularly sensitive to that kind of thing, but like often recognizes like. I found two people dealing V, and since I was not in the business any longer, and had not been by choice in the first place, I dealt with them. It made me feel a little better, more like my old self again. Shreveport was my city, my area, and I was charged with keeping the supernatural population of it under control and also under law. Perhaps my frustration was born on not being able to do that? Introspection is something I am good at, especially when I am well fed and in my element. I thought I would take a walk around and ended up back at the club just to see if anything caught my attention. Something did.

Arthur's car was still in the back lot, I knew it was his, and not just from the crumpled rear bumper. Perhaps he had finally given up his reliance on the thing, and decided to run home? I walked around it; it smelled odd. My memory being what it was it only took a moment to place the smell; the ash I had found in Sookie's fireplace. I knew there was no way that could be a coincidence and I felt the anger rise in my chest. The next time I saw Arthur I was going to chain him up in the basement with silver till his skin crackled. He had been the one to find her on my car, at least that was the story he had told everyone. The possibilities spiraled in my mind, too many to make sense of properly and I lashed out against the car, slamming my fist through the trunk lid.

I set out for home immediately.

Pam was curled around a book in the living room still, looking as content as a cat after a saucer of cream. I looked substantially different, and but for the fact that the outburst I was holding inside me would have startled Sookie into waking, and seeing my rage finally, I would have roared and torn the walls down around me.

"What do you know about Arthur?" I hissed through clenched teeth. Pam could not have failed to understand my fury, even if her mind was not connected to mine.

"What has happened?" She put down her book calmly, and rose. The action was designed to soothe the beast that had risen in me, but I was having none of it just then.

"What do you know about Arthur, Pam? Where did he come from? Where does he live?"

"Eric, what has happened?" She reached out for me, and I allowed her to rest her hand on my arm, she must have been able to feel the way my body was vibrating, like a cobra waiting to strike.

"He is involved in this."

"How do you know?" Her even tone of voice was working into my brain, as I had known it would. I had chosen and changed Pam for the very reason of her logical mind and the effect it had on me. Not that we had not had of screaming matches in the past.

"His car, it smelled like the poison they used to steal Sookie's memories."

At least she had the grace not to question my assumption on that part. She knew me just as well as I knew her.

"He is a young vampire Eric, turned only forty years back. He came to us by way of the Authority, his maker had deserted him and he needed guidance. They asked me to hire him, to give him some grounding in our world. But everything about him checked out."

"Is he weak minded?"

"I have never explored his mind Eric, he takes orders well, and respects his elders. He has been efficient at his job and has drawn no complaints. If anything, the women like him because he is polite to them at the club, and ensures their drinks are safe, and that they have rides home at the end of the evening."

I had noticed that behavior around Sookie and Diantha, as well as the increase in taxicabs around Fangtasia of late. Whether he was glamouring those ladies into taking the taxis or not I did not know, and it was beside the point. I really just wanted to rip off his head.

"I need to see him!" I roared.

"It's nearly dawn Eric, there isn't time right now, and if you go storming out to his place you are likely to be caught without shelter, and I will not permit that."

"You will not permit that?" I looked at her, wide eyed at her impertinence.

"No, I will not." She stood up to her full height, still much shorter than I, and glared at me. "Now go downstairs, ready yourself to sleep, take your comfort in Sookie's arms or her blood, whatever you need, and calm down. Rushing off, half cocked will only bring disaster."

I was not prepared to admit that she was right until she uttered her final line.

"Don't be like Bill. Your strength is in your planning and your intelligence."

I hated her just then, hated the comparison, hated the words, and hated that she was correct.

"Damn you." I hissed.

"You already have my darling, and I like it. Now get to bed so I can do the same." I loved that pink smile and lipstick that went with it.

"Fine." I stomped off down the stairs, fuming, angry, ready to kill, until I caught Sookie's scent, well, our scent, and I forced myself to calm down, if only for her sake. It would do no good to let her see my rage, it would frighten her, and worse, it might cause her to do something reckless, like chasing after Arthur and his witch friend Amy on her own, or simply running away from me.

I could have fought the fatigue that tried to claim me, after a full night, but there was no benefit to it that I could see. Arthur was young, he would have to sleep and so he would be going nowhere. As far as he knew everything was the same as it had been when he left work, there was no reason to suspect that he would not show up at Fangtasia just as he always did, the next night, and I could bide my time, I needed to bide my time so that I could get the answers I required, and not just the satisfaction of driving my fist through his chest to tear out his shriveled dead heart.


	28. Chapter 28

Short and Sweet, taking the vamps and Sookie out to play again, thanks Charlaine.

You asked for it, Eric professes his love,… hope you like it, please let me know.

Merick

Part 28

Funnily enough I could not sleep despite the dawn that was dragging at me. And instead of waking Sookie by joining her and tossing and turning in anger; and possibly by having her sense my black mood, I stayed out in the sitting room for another thirty minutes or so after having bolted the downstairs door behind me. I flung myself at the couch and heard it creak under me. I wanted to hit something, something more than Arthur's car, but the sunlight had now trapped me and I was powerless to proceed; probably for the best as it was then. As I looked around the room at nothing in particular I spied Sookie's journal, left out on the little table in front of the fireplace. I retrieved it, and sat back down on the couch, that time more gently, and opened it to the last few pages. She had written a little before going out shopping.

'I feel important. And I just get the impression that I haven't felt this way much before. It's like he's put his whole life on hold for me. Or maybe that isn't the right way to phrase it, it's like he's made his whole life revolve around me right now. I know it isn't always going to be this way, it's just because of the spell, or the curse, whatever we're calling it now. But he just makes me feel important, like my ideas matter, and my decisions matter, he hasn't forced me into anything, or told me to do something because he thinks it's right. I haven't been treated that way before as far as I can work out. Whether it was the powers, or well, okay it's because of the powers mostly, people make decisions for me, like Bill did; pushing me one way or the other, not guiding me, but manipulating me. I imagine it was similar when I was younger, that I had to make decisions about my life because of the powers, not because it was something I'd wanted to do. I can't imagine I played on many sports teams, not that I know if I liked that kind of thing, or went out with a lot of boys. I think I kept to myself because I had to. That sucks. But now I have choice, and it feels so good.'

I sighed, it felt so good to read about her being happy, and it helped to dispel some of the anger. I read on.

'Diantha and Gladiola are coming to pick me up to go shopping in a little while, Eric gave me a pile of money to spend, just on myself. It was so kind of him, maybe more than kind.' I wondered what she meant by that?

'I find myself wondering how I really feel about him, and I know that sounds, or rather reads as a pretty dumb statement, after all, we've bonded by sharing blood so that we can feel each other's emotions when they are strong. I think it will only get stronger if we share more.' She was correct, the longer we stayed together; if we were to continue to share blood we would become nearly as close as maker and child. And there was a thought I had never considered, and I stopped myself from considering it then and forced my eyes back to the page.

'I made that commitment to him because of how strongly I feel for him. I've probably written it before, but just being with him feels like exactly what I am meant to do. So I guess it's obvious. Not that I'm going to start writing Mrs. Sookie Northman out in fancy little pens scrolls across this journal, or anything else so twelve-year-old-ish.' A drop of blood splashed down onto the page, damned bleeds, I wiped angrily at my face, bleeding like a baby vamp, ridiculous! I blotted the spot, knowing I could not erase it, and I closed the book. I did not feel guilty about reading it or about reading her thoughts; she had offered it and them to me before. But I will confess to a spark of glee that crossed my own frozen heart just then.

I prepared for bed as I always did, showering, leaving my clothing in the laundry hamper for the housekeeper, and walking to my bedroom in nothing but my fatigue. I opened and closed the door as carefully as I could, and did not wake Sookie. I looked at her there in my bed, the quilts drawn over her sleeping form just hinting at the beauty beneath. I crawled in beside her; it was amusing how that had become routine for me over such a short period of time, and how much I felt I would miss it when and if she was not there. The hot shower had imparted some warmth to my normally cold skin, and so Sookie did not start as I reached out gingerly to just touch her with my fingertips. Emboldened by that fact I kissed the back of her neck softly, loving not only the feel of her, but also the smell of us both on her skin. When I had put her to bed earlier I had stripped her of her jeans and her purple blouse, as well as the white undergarments, possibly from her shopping trip that past afternoon, so she lay, as I did, quite naked. I folded my body around hers and her unconscious pulled my arm over her chest where it brushed against the heat of her breasts. I shivered, and then let myself finally sleep.

I do not dream, sleep for a vampire is like a little death; and not the classic kind referred to in Victorian literature either. There is simply a state of 'not being' for a period of hours, until one is awoken, either by the sunset, or by other means. That night it was the sunset that woke me, Sookie still at my side and I clasped her close to my chest as I did wake, needing to be grounded in her being as all the thoughts of what was likely about to happen rushed back into my mind. She mewled softly and turned to face me, a lazy grin on her face that just begged for a kiss.

"You were tired yesterday?" I whispered between kisses. Yes, it was stating the obvious, but I have often found that an effective vehicle for beginning a conversation.

"Yeah, I guess I was." She stretched in a cat like manner under the quilts, all the while smiling at me. "Working at the bar last night was so much fun."

"I am glad you enjoyed it." I traced my fingers over her skin absentmindedly, feeling my arousal beginning again, despite the weighty matters on my mind.

"You didn't come to bed until really late did you?"

"No, I had a great deal to ponder last night. I am sorry if I worried you." My fingers kept up their drawing.

"I wasn't worried Eric, I just miss you, that's all."

"I like sleeping with you as well Sookie." I rolled myself on top of her carefully and looked down at her face. I brushed the sleep-tousled hair from her skin and laid it out around her face like a halo. "I want you to always be here with me."

"I will be, for as long as you will have me."

"Then it will be forever." I bent to kiss her again, and when I pulled back I knew it was time to finally be honest with her.

"I love you Sookie."

Her response was not at all what I expected.

My ideal response would have involved her throwing her arms around my neck, professing her undying love for me and then us falling into passionate throws of lovemaking. Did I not just say something about vampires not dreaming? I may have to go back and amend that statement.

Instead I was greeted with a sight I shall never forget, and not just because I am a vampire with an exceptional memory. I did not even have a chance to see the smile of recognition cross her face at my words, for as soon as they had fallen from my lips Sookie's face fell sallow, and her eyes rolled backwards in her head in a terrifying sight. Her body went suddenly stiff and then relaxed into a horrifying limpness, in which she remained as I scooped her up into my arms, beyond bewildered, frightened to my very marrow, and that is truly something.

"Sookie!" I called out to her, as I pressed my ear to her chest barely able to hear her heartbeat or her breathing. Both were there, both very shallow, but she did not respond.

"Sookie!" I called again, shaking her body carefully, fully aware of my strength. Still she did nothing. I laid her back down.

"Sookie, please, answer me." Her eyes fluttered, in a terrible replay of what had happened only a few days past, on the couch in my office. Focusing, she looked at me finally, and began to scream.


	29. Chapter 29

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted, and thank you all for your patience, to those I owe mani's to, for their nerves, here are the answers you asked for; or at least some of them.

Part 29

Pam's footsteps were not light as she ran down the flight of stairs to my room, neither was the sound of my door splintering, but of course, it had only been designed to keep out nosey humans and not a vampire spawned on thousand year old blood, or nine hundred years old at that time give or take.

"Eric!" She screamed, concerned for my safety, because what else could Sookie possibly be screaming about except something terrible having happened to me?

"Pam!" I called back as she burst into the bedroom, the sight of her, wrapped in a silk kimono; and I am so glad she had the presence of mind to pull it on; did nothing to quiet Sookie who looked more terrified than ever. Pam looked at me, assuring herself of my health, and then looked to Sookie.

"What's happened!" She yelled over Sookie's shrill cries.

"I do not know." I tried to calm Sookie but she fought against me pulling her into my arms.

"Be quiet girl!" Pam yelled directly at Sookie. "Exactly what do you think your screams are going to accomplish? You're in a basement, with two vampires, you don't think the place is soundproofed?"

"Pam!" I yelled back in annoyance; ready to chastise her for her obvious lack of compassion, but before I could say anything else, Sookie quieted. Damned if Pam was not effective, if somewhat crude in her application of the means. I whirled back to Sookie, whose face was ashen, except where the tear streaks had turned it red, her eyes were wide as a deer caught in the headlights of a semi, and, curse me for saying it, the salt had swollen her lips and turned them a deep shade of crimson that I desperately wanted to kiss. But this was not a fairy tale, and before you state the obvious, I have changed my mind on that subject, think wisely, a kiss from the prince would not restore the princess. The fact was, it likely would have gotten me slapped, something that would have wounded my pride more than anything else and curled Sookie's opinion of me even further into the depths.

"Who are you?" Sookie stammered out in a fragile sounding voice. The last hope I had in my chest sank. She did not know who I was.

"My name is Eric." She did not even look as though she had heard me.

"Who am I?" I wanted to slam my hand against the wall, the frustration was almost palpable to me and it was so hard to fight it. She had lost everything, again.

"You are Sookie Stackhouse." I managed to keep my voice calm.

"Why are you holding me prisoner here?" The tears continued to run down her face, I leaned forward, out of habit, to wipe them away and she shrank back from me even further, looking me over completely, as I was still naked, as I had been when we were sleeping.

"I am not holding you prisoner Sookie, you are my guest here."

"You raped me." She squeaked.

"I did no such thing!" I roared, in a tone filled with far more anger than I had wanted her to hear from me. She shrieked and I realized my mistake. Not that it changed the underlying emotions. "We made love last night, and we slept in each other's arms." I did not worry about what Pam might think of my admission. Sookie did not seem convinced sadly, but at least she calmed her sniffling.

"Why am I here? Have you glamoured me? Are you feeding on me?" her hands went to her throat, presumably to feel for wounds. There were none to find, not only because I had not fed on her, but because she had taken so much of my blood that any I could have made would have healed almost immediately.

"I am protecting you Sookie." I saw Pam's expression change and I knew full well, even without our Maker/Child bond that she was thinking 'fine job you've made of that'. She had enough sense not to say it out loud.

"I don't understand." Her voice continued to waver and she kept herself scrunched into the corner of the bed, back to the headboard, as far away from me as she could without actually leaving the safety of the sheets that covered her. "Why don't I remember anything?"

At that very moment my cell phone, back on my desk began to ring.

"Dear Gods!" I whirled around, my blood boiling, and hearing Sookie's shriek as I exposed more of myself did not help my mood. I grabbed up my robe angrily and tore the tie in two as I tried to belt it. With a roar I did not feel like suppressing I let the shreds fall to the ground and walked out with the sides hanging open. I heard Pam behind me trying to soothe Sookie, and promising to retrieve some clothing for her, in fact she brushed past me at speed to retrieve the shopping bags I had left in the great room. I could still hear Sookie's racing heartbeat and smell feel the fear; it fueled my rage. I punched at the phone for lack of anything better.

"Hello!" I growled into the speaker.

"Eric, this is Arthur." My fury at him swirled into the maelstrom that was already present.

"Arthur! This had better be good! I am busy!" His response was not at all what I had expected, it was calm, too calm, not at all like the nervous vampire I had questioned the night previous. It left me with a sense of disease.

"Someone wishes to speak with you." He was toneless.

"I do not have time for meetings right now Arthur!"

"She says you'll want to see her."

"I do not care what she says, I am busy!"

"She says her name is Marie, and that you'll want to meet her."

I stopped, I was not sure if the fury was calmed, or if it simply had reached a white-hot level, beyond my ability to feel it any longer. It was not as if some calm had come over me, but a pause in time where the name, and everything that had just transpired sank in.

"Where?" I growled.

"She'll meet you at Fangtasia."

"I am on my way."

I knocked on the doorframe of my bedroom before entering, I did not want to scare Sookie any further, especially by walking in on her changing. I found her still wrapped in a sheet, looking at the piles of clothing around her; as lost as I ever remember seeing her. It tore at my heart but I did not let it show.

"I have to go to the club." I said to Pam, "Stonebrook is coming. Please, take care of Sookie."

"Who is Stonebrook?" Sookie mewled.

"She is the witch that has done this to you Sookie, and tonight I am going to settle this one way or another." I grabbed a handful of hangers from my closet and went back out to get dressed, stilling the urge to put my hand through something until I was well clear of the house, where I destroyed a street sign; not a Stop sign if you are curious, and I paid for it after. I had felt the confusion and the terror in Sookie's mind as I had left, and it seemed that our bond at least had survived the curse, and while it gave me only a thread of hope, it was something.

I do not know that I even looked where I was going as I flew to Fangtasia, I had flown the route so many times it was like second nature to me. And I took those few moments to try to plan out what I was going to do once I arrived. I could not simply kill Marie Stonebrook and hope that Papa B and Octavia could release Sookie from the spell. That thought made me wish that I had instructed Pam to contact them, but I had left in such a state I was not thinking logically. My emotions were getting the best of me, as Pam had warned me, and I decided to land a few blocks away from Fangtasia and to walk the last of the distance, buying myself a little more time to formulate some kind of plan. I knew I had to get her to reverse the spell, and now that I had a fair idea as to the substance, if not the complexities I had to be careful how I went about that. Afterwards I was going to kill her, and probably Arthur and his friend Amy, but the fun stuff would have to wait, and I was not above a bit of negotiating.

I flung open the front doors: I do like to make an entrance after all, and walked into the club as if I owned the place, which I did. Arthur hardly looked up from the bar, which furthered my assessment of his being enchanted. His little witch girlfriend, gloves and all, was at the far end of the bar, furthest from the door, also trying not to look at me, but not quite succeeding. Her I had terrified, and that was a plus in my column I figured. Marie, the only other person in the establishment was sitting in the middle of the bar, a copper brazier in front of her, a wisp of bluish smoke rising in a tendril from it. The smell was sickeningly familiar.

"You wanted to see me then Witch?" I spoke through clenched teeth, my fangs dropping even before the first word had fallen from my lips. I kept my tone even and succinct.

"I thought perhaps you might want to see me?" She responded, with a sickening amount of syrup dripping in her voice.

"Really? I think I would have been much happier had you never darkened my door madam." At that she let out a laugh. It would have been more appropriate as a cackle I thought to myself, but it was derisive enough.

"My spell has taken its full effect this night I see." Apparently witches had some kind of witchy radar about such things.

"I want you to lift it."

"I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because I want you to suffer Eric Northman, the way I have suffered."

"Explain yourself then!" My hands clenched into fists, my nails cutting into my palms.

She laughed again and I rethought the wisdom of not killing her outright. I took a step towards her, but she waved a finger at me like a naughty child.

"Ah ah ah. If you come any closer I will blow on the embers in this pot and the smoke will take your memories too Mr. Northman. And then where will you and your precious Miss Stackhouse be?" I stopped, a growl rumbling in my chest.

"You told your heart's desire that you loved her this evening." Her smile was mocking and I imagined the time when I would finally wipe it from her face permanently. "And she was lost to you again. How tragic." She swirled the tendril with her fingertip creating a little helix in the smoke.

"Why?"

"So you would know how I feel every day when I think of my children and know that I cannot tell them that I love them!" The hiss was more typical of the witch I had been imagining.

"I did not kill your children witch!"

"They are dead because of you! And now you cannot tell your Miss Stackhouse that you love her without her losing everything all over again." Gods be damned! This bitch was pure evil.

"So as I see it Mr. Northman, you have a few choices, more choices than I was given! You can restore her memories piece by piece again, like a half made jigsaw puzzle, only to have to push her away before you profess your love." I growled at her, one might have thought there was a Were in the room with us. "Or," she continued, "you can send her away immediately, and leave it to her friends to help her restore her memories; perhaps that nice shifter, or the Were or even that Mr. Compton fellow." I knocked off a good sized piece of wood from the bar with my fist. "Always knowing that she could have loved you, and given herself to you."

Suddenly there was someone else in the room with us, Pam, who had come in from the office area. She looked at me, and I heard her voice in my mind, clear as if she had spoken the words out loud. 'Don't worry, Sookie is safe, I'm here to help.' I nodded at her.

"Of course, there is a third option."

"And what would that be?" I imagined it to be no better than the first two, and I was correct.

"You can turn her. The spell will not survive her death, she will have all her memories restored, and you may profess your love as you see fit."

An impossible choice to be certain, I could not kill Sookie or turn her, her hatred of me for making that choice for her would drive her from my arms as surely as it seemed that I must do then.

"Why are you doing this?" Came Pam's question.

"Ah, little vampire spawn, I am doing this because he killed my children!" She wheeled on Pam, though I knew she had not been surprised by her presence.

"Eric didn't kill Hallow! I did!" Pam screamed at her, "And your son died at the hands of the wolves. Eric was not complicit in anything that transpired!"

That knowledge seemed to shake the witch just a little, I saw her resolve flicker, just like her heartbeat, and in that instant Pam had flung herself at Amy at the end of the bar, and I blazed towards Marie, knocking her to the floor, and covering her brazier with both my hands, effectively cutting off the oxygen to her embers, burning both palms in the effort, but as Pam flung the young witch across the dance floor and turned her attentions to Marie, I hurled the now dead brass pot and its ash through the front door of the club, effectively removing the witch's threat. I picked her up by the throat, my hands still raw from the glowing coals and I lifted her off the ground so that her feet dangled just above the floor.

"Amelia?" She tried to choke out, obviously referring to the other witch, who was quite unconscious.

"Remove the spell!" I bellowed at her.

"Kill me Vampire, I have nothing to live for."

"No!" Came the call from the darkened hallway that led behind the Dias and to my offices.


	30. Chapter 30

A few more answers: thanks to CH for letting me take her characters out to play.

Part 30

"You brought her here?" I looked at Pam, absolutely incredulous that she could have been so thoughtless as to have brought Sookie right to the woman who had destroyed her life. I should not have doubted Pam, but at that moment I did.

"She's been watching videos." Pam said with a smirk. And I noticed, as my Sookie stepped out of the shadows, that she was also carrying the leather journal I had given her, clutched in her left hand like a bible, or perhaps better described as a lifeline. Perhaps they were the same things as I think back on it now.

"Don't kill her Eric." Sookie asked me again. It hurt to hear the uncertainty in her voice, she had been so strong before, before I had brought the full wrath of the curse down on her once again.

Slowly, very slowly, I let the witch back down to her feet, but kept my hand at her throat so she would not be tempted to try anything foolish; well, anything else foolish. Sookie came to nearly stand at my side; she looked up at me with a bewildered expression, searching for something in now seeing me again. And I understood what 'video' it was that Pam had had her watching; it was the security footage of the bar, the night previous, when we had danced, and when we had been intimate in nearly the same spot as we found ourselves standing in just then.

I found I liked the way she gazed at me, there was wonder there, not the mindless awe I tended to receive from the patrons of the club who had had too many, but a childlike curiosity as if she was seeing me properly for the first time; at least as I wanted her to see me once again. He lips were drawn into the tiniest of smiles, hardly anything a human might have noticed, but I did. I encouraged her with my own smile and nod. Satisfied, I supposed, she turned her eyes to the witch in my hand.

"Why did you do this to me?" She asked, very calmly, very quietly.

"Because this vampire had to know the suffering he caused me." The witch replied in a bit of a strangled voice. I did not loosen my grasp on her.

Sookie crinkled her brow as she continued to examine the witch like a specimen in a petri dish.

"Do you know me?"

"No."

"Then why did you do this to me?" Sookie repeated the question, her voice a little higher, and her intonation a little more forceful.

"You were a means to an end." The witch tried to make her voice sound angry, but that seemed exceedingly hard through the grip of my fingers.

I could hear the desperation in the next question, Sookie's quest to find some kind of meaning where there was likely none. My dead heart ached for her just then.

"But I've done absolutely nothing to you?"

"But your boyfriend here has."

Sookie looked up to me and then back to the witch. I could feel something building in her mind, and it was powerful.

"I have done nothing to you." Another decibel was added to her voice.

"My children are gone!" The witch wailed back.

"And you've taken my family and my friends and my lover from me! And I have done nothing to you!" Oh, how I do love the assertive Sookie, when she is not asserting herself against me that is. And I did love hearing her say the word 'lover' out loud, it is an ego thing, I make no apologies.

"Give me back my memories! All of them!" She got really close to the witch and I worried for an instant that the hag would try to reach out for her, but she did not.

"No."

"Why not!"

"You cannot give me back my children."

"I didn't take them from you! And neither did he!" Apparently she had overheard some of our earlier conversation. There was a moan from across the dance floor where the other witch had landed in a heap. Pam was on her in an instant, dragging the still semi-conscious body back to where we were.

"Is she important to you?" Sookie asked the question, and I could see her trying to look into Marie's mind as she did it. Her lips pursed together in a wry grin that complimented her narrowed gaze; she had obviously found something she considered useful. "She's your apprentice. You think of her as another daughter."

Oh my brilliant, darling Sookie.

"Remove this curse or I will kill her." I told the witch, Sookie did not flinch as I said it, her expression did not change from the piercing gaze she had on the witch. "And then I will kill you."

"Then you will never be able to tell this girl how much you love her. Can you send her away?" I could hear the wavering in her voice; it pleased me because I knew the witch was breaking. I could almost taste the sweetness of it.

"He doesn't have to send me away. I can live the rest of my life not hearing those words from him; it will not make the sentiment any less valid. I know the truth." I was surprised at Sookie just then; the sentiment seemed so deep for one with no basis of comparison.

"But you will have nothing then girl."

Sookie stepped back to my side and I felt her reach out to take my left hand in her right, holding it tightly. I had missed that touch, and I had been so afraid that I might never feel it again. I should have never doubted her strength, and her uncommon, common sense. In a way she was so much like me, and her next statement cemented that fortitude I still admire her for.

"I will have everything I need." She turned to me. "Kill her Eric."

"As you wish my lover." I began to squeeze the witch's throat. The other witch, Amelia, who by then had regained most of her senses, began to scream, as Pam bared her fangs and made for her throat.

"Please?" The witch in my hand mewled.

"Remove the curse!" I roared at her.

"I will. Just leave Amelia alone, please."

With the shit-eating grin I had come to expect from Pam when she won an argument, or was generally proven right about something, she pulled her mouth back and let the girl fall to the floor again, quietly sobbing.

"I'll need some ingredients." Marie said in a defeated whisper.

I let her go.

"Give me a list!"

Pam had volunteered, before I needed to ask, to accompany Amelia on her little shopping trip. The girl was still shaking, and I liked that. I needed her to be afraid; too afraid to try anything stupid when I let her go.

"If you are not back in an hour missy I will kill this woman here." I gestured to Marie who was leaning in a wilted sort of manner against the bar. I watched her shudder. I liked that too.

"And before you go. Fix Arthur." My bartender, my weak-minded bartender was polishing glasses as if nothing at all out of the ordinary was going on around him. If I had not known prior to that that he had been enchanted, that would have been the 'thump over the head' clue.

Amelia nodded and walked over to Arthur.

"Darling?" She said, drawing his attention to her. He looked at her and smiled. "Come here." He leaned over the bar to her. She placed a hand on his cheek, after drawing the long black glove from it. "I release you." She whispered, and then kissed him on the mouth. I watched his eyes, at first soften as she touched him, and then widen as his recollection returned, not enough recollection to pull away from her mouth I noted; Amelia did have a certain charm about her, if you liked the gothic, dark type of girl.

"Amy?"

"Hi darling." She tried to smile through pursed lips. Arthur looked around at everyone, absolute confusion on his face.

"What's going on here?"

"I will explain it all to you later Arthur. Your girlfriend is going out now."

"Umm, okay Eric, sure. Ah, see you later Amy?"

"With any luck darling." Amelia's words did not sound convincing, I was glad she understood the severity of the situation she had gotten herself into.

"Arthur? Will you put the 'Closed for a Private Function' sign out front?" I did not want any customers showing up to further complicate our tremulous detent. He nodded and went into the back to find the object I had requested.

"And Pam?" I began. She cut me off.

"I'll call the contractor to replace the door." That I had damaged when I heaved the braiser through it. "And fix the bar." That had met my fist. Gods I loved that woman. She took Amelia by the collar of her cloak and dragged her out the front door, pulling out her cell phone with the other hand. She probably had the man on speed dial. Not that I lost my temper that often, but things did seem to get broken around Fangtasia fairly regularly. I will take credit for a portion of them.

"Thank you Pam."

"What would you do without me Eric?" She grinned, obviously feeling that things were back on the right track. I was not yet convinced of that, but her attitude helped me to feel a modicum of hope. Looking at Sookie, gave me another.

"Oh, and I called Papa B, he'll be here within the hour I imagine." She closed the door behind herself and Amelia, as best she could. I could hear her laughter. Apparently I amused her. I turned my attention back to the ladies, at my bar.

"Sit down witch." I motioned to the stool she seemed so intent on avoiding.

"You can't glamour me Vampire." A thread of bravado still remained in her it seemed.

"I am not attempting to Glamour you, I am giving you an order, and one I expect you to carry out." The serious look in my eyes was obviously enough to get my point across. She sat in the high-backed chair, and in a moment I had her hands bound behind her with the packing tape I keep behind the bar for liquor cases. I had no intention of letting her wander about or make any hand gestures that I would later regret. Truthfully, I had only a minimal idea of how her spells were cast, and while I knew that some most certainly involved potions, I could not be certain that others did not involve signs, and incantations. To that end, I wrapped a bar towel across her mouth and tied it tight. She could still breathe of course, but could do little else. She seemed to understand and did not fight me.

Sookie watched the whole proceeding without saying a word, either in support or admonishment of me. Arthur returned from the back and busied himself with the sign. I filled him in on the events in the same back booth I had used to question him. His shocked expression, and then his humble apologies did not give me any satisfaction, except in their sincerity. I decided that I was not going to fire him just then. He went back to the bar, promising to watch Marie, which gave me a few minutes relatively alone with Sookie.

"How are you Sookie?" I whispered it to her, she was still staring at the witch, and at me, trying to put feelings to the words she had been reading and the images she had watched no doubt.

"I feel empty Eric. I'm sorry; I can't come up with anything better than that. I feel like I should know so much more than I do about what is going on, and that I should feel so much more. It's like a word; just on the tip of your tongue, which you just can't vocalize. Does that make any sense?"

I nodded, because I did understand that confusion, the search for a fragment just seemingly out of reach.

"I love you." Tumbled out of her mouth, with the oddest expression on her face. The words brought me no happiness however, because she seemed so confused saying them. "I watched us together, and I could see, from the way you held me, from the way I looked at you that it was true. But it was like watching a movie. I see it, I feel happiness at the images, but I don't have the connection."

"You will my Beauty, very soon." I tried to reassure her.

"I want that Eric, I want to feel the way I looked in that video, the way I wrote in this book." She held up the journal. "I want all of this to be real."

"It is real Sookie." I dared to reach out and take her hand. She shuddered, perhaps at the coolness of my skin, perhaps in lingering fear of me. I did not want to explore the possibilities of the latter. Her gaze continued to sweep the room slowly, grasping for the thread of recognition. I wondered where the powerful Sookie had disappeared to again, but of course, she was running on pure instinct and adrenaline. Fight or flight, I had seen the first when she confronted Marie, and now I was seeing the second as she fought with herself.

"I will give it all back to you Sookie." I whispered, and finally she leaned herself into my chest and let me hold her gently. I could feel her tears through my shirt.

Reviews are love, please let me know what you think.


	31. Chapter 31

And now Sookie finally gets to hear the words. Thanks to CH for creating these characters for us all to play with in our own sandboxes. I hope you enjoy.

Merick

Part 31

We were a motley crew, milling around the bar that night. No one talking very much, mostly just looking about at each other, with darting glances, brief sentences and a great deal of nervous tapping, twirling, and sighing, for the human contingent. Papa B had arrived, with Octavia in tow about ten minutes before Amelia and Pam had returned. He was easily the most animated of the group, chanting something under his breath which even I had trouble distinguishing. I knew it was some type of incantation to keep Marie in line as she put together her potion to restore Sookie's mind. I was thankful that he had come, and had come so quickly. It pleased me to know that I had allies beyond those who were simply afraid of me.

On that note, Arthur was at the front door, acting as bouncer for the few souls who decided that the sign he had placed did not apply to them. At least his confusion of earlier had faded and he had taken on the proper mantle of a vampire in my employ, fangs drawn, crossed arms, and serious visage, that sent those who thought to crash our function back to their cars in a hurry. He had not spoken to Amelia since her return; I doubted he would ever speak to her again. He had to be feeling shame and humiliation at having been conned in such a manner, and made to act against his employer and his people. Pam, however, seemed a little more enchanted with the baby witch, as did Octavia; they had held a few hushed conversations before the room had fallen to its present state of quiet.

My greatest concern was of course Sookie. Despite her initial show of resolve and power, she had faded into a meek shell, alternately staring at Marie, and myself with something very serious running around behind her eyes. I could only guess at its depth, but I did not have to guess at the fear, it hung around her like a cloud. I kept as close to her as I could, just in case she reached out for me again. I was going to be her rock in those last few moments, no matter what happened when her memories returned.

The scents of the potion were beginning to fill the bar as Marie worked over the uninjured counter space. I hoped that meant that things were coming close to a resolution. I left Sookie tucked into one of the banquettes, still clutching the journal; she had read pages here and there over the last few hours as we had waited. Her eyes followed me; I could feel them on my back and in my mind. Octavia pulling herself away from Pam and Amelia, and closer to Papa B was a good clue to what was transpiring. I looked to them both for some kind of reassurance. A slight nod gave me what I sought and I acted.

"Sookie?" I called to her, holding out my hand. "Would you join us?"

She reminded me of a deer as watched from a hunting blind, or its ancient equivalent from my memory. She stepped cautiously, and slowly, looking at everyone and everything around her, sensing the disruption in the environment, but still unsure as to its implications on her being. She was not happy at being the center of attention suddenly, I could feel it in her mind though our bond. I wondered if this was how she had felt before, when she had been the ostracized little girl back in Bon Temps. If it was, as I suspected, my chest begin to ache for her. What a horrible undercurrent to carry through your life. I had known despair, and I had known heartbreak, but my nature had allowed me to focus and to move through it. Being a thousand year old vampire, raised as a warrior certainly helped. I wanted so much to give Sookie just a portion of that strength right then. I did not doubt she had the capacity to find it on her own, but not at that moment. At that moment she needed my help, at least I believed that she needed it. If willing could have made it so, she would have been my shield maiden once more.

"What do we need to do?" I asked of Marie, the most civil words I had ever spoken to her. Sookie did not need to hear any more rage from my throat as much as I wished to rail against the witch. But for her Sookie would have been mine by then. She had been coming to see me when she had been intercepted, coming to tell me the truth of our days together, coming to tell me that she had chosen to be with me, not Alcide, not Sam, and certainly not Bill Compton. The suitcase she had packed was for me, and the significance of all that was beginning to crash down on me. I felt the fear that my only chance with Sookie might have been lost. Despair was eating at me as I held myself strong for her.

"Sookie? Come here." The witch asked, mostly ignoring my inquiry. I saw Sookie clench her jaw and clutch at the book a little more tightly. She was putting on her game face before she stepped towards Marie.

"You must think me some kind of demon eh child?" Marie offered.

"Not at all." I heard the lilt in my lover's voice change; a smile began to grow on my face. Sookie was not going to give that woman an ounce of grace. "Demons like to go shopping and dancing, and they eat hamburgers." I could not help but laugh out loud. It was the most incongruous sound possible, but it made Sookie giggle a bit too, and I was thankful for that. There was hope in that sound. Everyone else must have thought we were losing our minds, but it broke my internal tension for an instant. It was something.

"All you need to do child is breathe in the smoke from the brazier." The new brazier, I feel the need to point out, the first one was a twisted mess in the parking lot, unless Arthur had picked it up. "It will unlock the door. Then your heart's desire can say his words, and it will be done."

So apparently I had a part in this spell as well, I was pleased at that. Sookie still appeared hesitant.

"It is safe." Came Papa B's voice, "I assure you Sookie. I have watched every ingredient, as has Octavia. It is an appropriate formula and will bring you no further harm."

I did not question how he knew that; I took it on faith. He had sorted out the contents of the original potion with nothing but his skill as a Mambo. I knew that it was the best assurance we would be able to get, but I can admit to a pang of uncertainty. If Sookie so much as coughed I was going to rip off the witch's head.

Her last look was at me, eyes pleading for me to save her, courage trying to stay screwed up enough to turn her face to the corkscrew of smoke now rising from the copper pot.

"I will be here for you Sookie. I will keep you safe. Even at the cost of my own life." Her hand reached back for mine, and I took it, and enfolded it in grasp, again willing her to take the strength I could give her through the bond. It was enough. She squared up her shoulders and closed her eyes, turning to inhale the white tendrils. A minute passed in complete silence until broken by the witch.

"Enough." I pulled her back, and she looked at me, waiting for me to act, and to turn the key.

"Pam, watch over everyone." I spoke to my child but never let my eyes leave Sookie's blue depths. Of course I only meant for her to watch over Marie. But as soon as the spell was cast Papa B had stepped forward, and now he placed a hand around Marie's upper arm. He was seemingly stronger than he looked as I saw the grip hold her fast. In an instant he had blown a dark red powder into her face, which just as quickly dissipated as it met her skin.

"You have till sunset tomorrow Miss Stonebrook to leave Louisiana. Otherwise my spell will take your life. Blood will flow from your eyes, your ears and your nose, and it will not stop. I will know if you try, but more importantly, Eric will know if you return. Your blood will draw every nightwalker for miles." His voice was so deep and so rich in the Haitian accent as he cast his own spell, it gave him all the power he needed. I understood what that powder had been composed of then, my blood, along with his magics. "Do you understand?" He asked of Marie, in a voice that could have been music.

She nodded, transfixed by him, as was most everyone else.

"And if you have hurt Sookie further, you will not make it to the border, do you understand that?" I put in my two cents with a voice that was not so musical as it was deadly serious. I did not wait for a response. "Hold her here for just a moment longer, till we return." I instructed Pam, and then took Sookie's hand, still in my own and guided her backwards. I had no intention of professing my love for her in front of a crowd, not only for my own comfort, but also for hers. She did not need everyone staring at her again, expectantly, especially if things did not go well. The anxiety rolled off her in palpable waves. No, we would be alone, for both our sakes.

"Will you come to the office with me?" I asked. She nodded and followed me, I dropped her hand and held the door for her, looking back at Pam as I did so, her forced smile told me she would know what to do if things did not go well, as well as if they did.

"How do you feel?" The office light was harsh, but there was no time to light candles, the task was far more pressing than those niceties.

"The same I guess."

"Come here." I wanted her to be right in front of me when I said it, but I wanted her to come to me, I did not want to advance on her. Thankfully she came. So picture us, face to face, about a foot apart, her looking up at me, me looking down at her. I watched her chest heaving in the anticipation of what was to come.

"Sookie," I began. "I" two fingers pressed against my lips stopped my words. A chill ran through me. She didn't want me to continue.

"Don't."

"But Sookie?"

"Wait just a moment, please Eric."

"I do not understand Sookie. Is this not what you want?"

"It is, I want my life back, but I want something else from you first."

"Anything."

"Kiss me. I want to feel you kiss me, for the first time. I want to feel everything I've been reading about. I need to have that truth first, please." She had called it truth, my dead heart leapt in my chest, she wanted it as much as I did, and perhaps that strength of will would be enough to make it so.

I answered her without words, but by cupping the back of her head into my left hand and turning it up to me as I bent to her, pressing my lips against hers, and grinding against them. At first it was carefully, and then I built the pressure as my desperation for her began to break through the wall I had been holding in place for so many hours. As I felt her part her lips to take a breath I thrust my tongue into her mouth and met hers, feeling her own desperation for me. For her it was the first kiss, for me, I was so afraid it would be the last and I wrapped myself around her, grasping for purchase against her mouth and body in what was a haphazard embrace at best, tasting her and pulling against her like a boy, a boy afraid that his lover was about to vanish. I felt the prickling of the tears in my eyes and finally pulled away from her, to wipe them clear before she could see them.

"Thank you." She whispered, letting her head rest against my chest. "I wish we had more time."

"For?" I was an idiot.

"For you to make love to me for the first time again as well." Her tiny smile was more than playful, it was the most beautiful, charming thing I had ever seen, or ever would see. I laughed along with her, and let the tear run down my face unmolested until she reached up to dab it away and to lick the blood from her fingertip.

"I love you Sookie Stackhouse."

**I am desperate to hear what you think, and what you believe will happen next. Don't hate me for my cliffies. Reviews make me write faster. ;)**


	32. Chapter 32

Part 32

Everyone looked at me as I re-entered the bar, but no one had the courage to speak save one, perhaps it was the look in my eyes, or perhaps the way I was holding my jaw rigid.

"Well young man, what's happened?" I was by no means a young man, but as far as Octavia Fant was concerned my thousand years of immortal existence was not worth a penny. Perhaps it was her way of declaring her own wisdom and power, neither article of which I doubted. Whatever her desired effect with the choice of words they could not help but elicit a resigned smile from me.

"The spell is broken." A collective of human throats sighed in relief.

"Then where is she Brother Eric?"

"She needs some time." I was so glad that my voice had not broken as I said it. Papa B nodded, understanding more from my words than I had meant to disclose. But he was kind enough not to explore it.

"Well then we'll leave you to your peace Brother Eric."

"I owe you both a great debt Papa B. I will await your summons." I bowed my head to him in thanks and respect. He had earned both.

"Nonsense Brother. We are friends and allies. We await each other." He smiled his great toothless grin and collected up all the ladies save Pam. Amelia it seemed, was to be educated at Octavia's side from then on, and Marie was to be left at her home to gather her things before her final departure from my state.

Only Amelia turned back to me as the group was departing.

"I'm really sorry for my part in hurting your friend Mr. Northman. Will you please tell her I'm sorry?" I had no intention of doing it, and did not give her the satisfaction of any type of answer.

The bar became quiet very quickly with the sounds of the breathers now gone. It was only Pam and I for that moment, and there was no need for any pretense between us. I sat down heavily at the bar and dropped my head into my hands. My child was at my side in an instant.

"Eric?" She had never made much skill of hiding her emotions and her concern for me radiated outwards like a wave of sound, worry turning quickly to anger as it so often does, especially with my Pam. "What has happened?"

Acknowledging her emotions did not mean that I always responded to them however.

"I need time to be alone Pam."

"What has she done?"

"Please Pam, a moment." I did not even look up at her, but talked directly to the wooden bar beneath my face. I half expected a more vigorous fight from her, but she backed away.

"Fine, but only a moment. I'll go out and send Arthur home and see what's keeping those contractors." I heard her heels click away from me; their determined march fading as she went outside. My mind filled with the images of my Sookie, throat bared, blood on her lips, wrapped in the silk sheets of my bed, surrounded by the scent of our sex and our play. I could remember it all far too well, and the memories ripped at me.

Once again things had not gone as I had wished, and I was getting damned tired of it.

She had looked up at me after I had spoken the words to her, eyes wide, lips parted, frozen for a moment in time. At least she hadn't started screaming again, there was that. I brushed the back of my hand along the side of her face, tucking the long blond strands behind her ear and felt her tremble; and not in a good way. I stepped back when all I wanted to do was crush her to my chest.

"Sookie?" I offered, hoping it would break her from the seeming trance. "Sookie, do you remember me?"

She nodded, stiffly, her brow furrowed, her eyes narrowing in deep concentration.

"Do you know what has happened?"

Her eyes closed and she nodded again, trying to find words I assumed.

"What do you remember?"

"All of it." She finally whispered, taking a very long time to string together the three simple words. I wanted to be happy, but I also wanted her to leap into my arms, to kiss me, and to continue the train of thought she had begun before the spell had broken. You may call me selfish. I suppose I am.

"Sookie please, say something to me."

"Time Eric, I need some time." Again she stumbled to get the words out, the hardened look still twisting her beautiful soft features into something concerning. She pulled away from me, not that I had been holding her, but you know what I mean, and looking around at my office backed away to the farthest corner, head downcast where she slid down into a curled up mass and hid her face. She shut me out completely as surely as if she had told me to get out, which is exactly what I did.

Collapsed against the bar I replayed it all, and my mind ran every distasteful scenario that it could as my fists grew tighter and my rage threatened another section of the wood. It was not right. I was Eric Northman damn it, Sheriff of Area Five, thousand year old warrior, who was I to be bested by the fickle emotions of a girl? But yet there I was, miserable as a child who has lost a favored plaything, except that Sookie was not a plaything. I had allowed myself to plan a life around her, or at least a damn sight longer than a few days. I had made myself weak with love for her, and I saw it all collapsing around me. With a roar I pushed myself away from the bar, upending the stool I had been sitting on, earning myself raised eyebrows from Pam, who had re-entered with a burly looking vampire clutching a section of railing and a tool chest.

"Shall we start on the door then Eric?" She asked in her efficient, depreciating, manner.

"Start wherever you please Pam." I stalked off back to my office, not prepared to feel sorry for myself for one second longer. She would have me or she would not, but I would not mewl like a child; at least not where anyone could see me.

Her eyes caught mine as I opened the door to my office. I had done it slowly, to give her ample notice of my presence, and to give myself extra time to prepare for what I might find within. She was still sitting on the floor, but she appeared to have drawn herself back together somewhat more completely. She pursed her lips together in a sad little smile upon seeing me and stood up.

"Everyone is gone now, except Pam and the repairman. How are you feeling?"

"A little like a shuffled deck of cards, they're all in there, just a little out of order. And don't you dare say anything about me not playing with a full deck." Now that sounded like Sookie.

"I would not dare." I assured her, as much as I wanted to laugh.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier. It was all just so confusing, it still is truth be told."

"I imagine that twenty-some years of memories flooding back in must be terribly disconcerting."

"To say the least." She sat herself down on the leather couch, the one I had laid her body on so recently. "We should talk."

The kiss of death, it could not have made my roiling gut feel any worse, but for the upturned corner of her mouth as she said it. I sat down beside her and turned to face her.

"What do you wish to talk about?"

"Everything that's happened?" She was hesitant and unsure. So I tried to steer her in a productive direction.

"How much do you remember about what happened to you?"

"I remember coming home from work, and seeing all the dirt on my porch." She must have been referring to the powder scattered there. "And I remember thinking that I should get a broom and sweep it up, but I never did." She had such a far away look as she spoke, but I knew it was simply because she was trying so hard to put everything in order in her head.

"What happened next?"

"I went into the spare room, I'd pulled out Gran's old suitcase that morning, before I went to work. I'd half packed it. Then something started to smell funny and, and, I don't remember anything else until I woke up just here, on your couch Eric, with you looking over me." At the time I did not ponder how very difficult it must have been for her to have a memory of a time when she did not have any memories. I will leave the paradox of all that to the philosophers.

"Why were you packing the suitcase Sookie?" I knew the answer but I wanted to make certain that she knew it too, or perhaps I meant to see if she would tell me.

"I was coming to see you Eric." Her voice had slowed again, but this time I think it was more out of apprehension than anything else.

"Why?" For that question I did not have the answer, but I craved it.

"I felt so guilty for not being honest with you Eric, it had been eating at me for a long time. I was coming to tell you what had happened when you'd stayed with me. What had happened between us."

"You mean that we had made love?" I knew I was pressing my luck, but it was the elephant in the room, and I had to get it out.

"Yes." She dropped her eyes down to the couch.

"But why the suitcase Sookie?"

"Because I was hoping that when I got here that you'd ask me to stay." Her voice was so quiet, not that I had any trouble hearing it.

"I would have." I whispered back to her.

"Oh gods Eric." She squeaked. I loved that she had used my words again. It meant that I was in there somewhere, and it gave me such hope. I reached out and tipped her chin upwards to look at me again.

Her blue eyes were beginning to tear up. The permission was implicit, if not broad, and I bent my head to her, and brushed my mouth over hers. It was not chaste, but neither was it demanding. I took a single breath from her and pulled away. A tear rolled down her cheek and it was my turn to sweep it away.

"Let me take you back to my house Sookie. Let me show you that your memories are true and honest."

"It isn't that simple Eric."

I sighed, and smiled indulgently at her.

"With you Sookie Stackhouse, it never is."

**Reviews are love.**


	33. Chapter 33

Sorry for the delay, life has once again intruded into my writing, so here is a little 'kiss and make-up' interlude for everyone.

Part 33

She looked at me, her face falling into something serious, which I did not like, but I let her speak because she needed to, and because I am a generally patient man. Or I would like to believe that I am generally a patient man; though Sookie Stackhouse, and the position I now found myself in were certainly testing me. I began to wonder if I should not have just taken out my frustration on the witch to make myself feel better.

"I was afraid. I am afraid. Sometimes I just act without thinking."

I so wanted to agree with her then, but I refrained.

"I packed up everything to race out here to be with you Eric. Without even asking myself what you might have wanted."

"I have already told you what I want Sookie."

"But I make these decisions Eric, without all the facts. That trait has gotten me into so much trouble." Again I agreed with her, but kept it to myself.

"What are you trying to say to me Sookie?" She was afraid to answer me, I could see that in her, and I could feel it. I was afraid to hear her answer.

"Do you want me here because I have finally yielded to you Eric?"

"What!" I let my voice climb, more than I should have, but I was shaken by what she had said. "Do you think that all I want from you is sex Sookie? Do you think that is the only thing I value you for? Honestly, after everything we have shared?"

Tears began to roll down her face, and I admit that I was not feeling quite so charitable as to wipe them away just then. I felt the sting of an icy cloak wrap itself around me, hardening in my frustration and my ire. I hated that feeling when I was looking at her, it was not how I wanted it to be.

"Eric I'm sorry, I'm just so mixed up. I don't know which feelings came first. Everything's just muddled when it comes to you."

"Think with your heart Sookie!" My tone was commanding, but I do not regret it. She looked at me with such misery, and it flooded through our bond, finally tearing at my dead heart. Things remained quiet between us for a moment, a too-long moment.

"I love you Eric." She whispered.

"Finally." And I began to laugh. "Finally." I repeated. She looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

"Do you understand what I am going through here Eric?" I loved that defensive tone that was creeping in through the tears and the way her little fists curled up in frustration.

"I have an excellent idea what you are going through my Beauty." And I crushed her to my chest, perhaps a little forcefully in my zeal. My laughter continued.

"What am I supposed to do Eric?"

"You are supposed to trust me, and trust what we both remember and feel."

"We have a blood bond?"

"We do. Does that upset you?"

"No, it doesn't, I guess."

"Good, I am too old to regret things I cannot change."

"You are quite a constant in the universe aren't you Eric?" She sniffled and dabbed away the last of the tears on her face, finally smiling at me.

"As long as I am a constant in yours Sookie Stackhouse."

"And you are apparently very self confidant as well."

"I believe they call it cocksure." At that she finally joined me in laughter and collapsed against my chest at her own volition. It was wonderful to feel her warmth against me again.

"I thought you said that this wasn't just about sex?"

"You have a dirty mind young lady, and besides, I never said that the sex with you was not magical."

"Please don't say anything about magic Eric. I have had quite enough of spells and potions to last a lifetime."

"Agreed. Allow me to rephrase that. Making love to you Sookie is one of the most joyous things I have ever done."

"One of?" She raised her eyebrows as she stared at me.

"I also really enjoy tasting you." And I left it at that as she blushed, tried to respond, and then gave up stuttering.

"Let me take you home." I offered, standing up and holding out my hand. I could hear Pam in the club speaking with the repairman, obviously they had moved from the door to the bar with the fist sized piece missing. She was perfectly capable of overseeing the correct replacement of the top, more capable than I. Sookie, however, suddenly seemed slightly less than capable.

"You want to take me back to Bon Temps tonight?" Her voice was obviously disappointed.

"Of course not Sookie. We do not have enough time for me to take you there, see you settled, and then for me to return here at this late hour."

"You could just stay?"

"Even with your lovely crawl space, your house is not yet safe enough for me Sookie. Besides, though I know you have happy memories there, there is also a great deal of sadness wound up in that place."

She nodded, thinking over, no doubt, the death of her grandmother, the were attacks on her person, her own abduction, and likely a few other things I had never heard tell of; possibly linked to Bill Compton. And of course, keeping her far away from him, for even one day longer was a fervent desire of mine as well.

"No Sookie, when I said take you home, I meant back to my house, the place we shared as home these past days. I am not ready to let you go from me just yet."

"I'm glad." She rose and took my hand. "Do you want to talk to Pam first?"

"No, she will manage better without me here anyways. It has been a very long night for us all, and I would very much like to relax and get some rest."

I let Sookie make herself ready for bed first, giving up the first few gallons of hot water to her, in favor of answering a number of outstanding emails that I had been ignoring, and preparing a bowl of fruit for her to eat. I have found that my skills in cooking have declined appreciably since I stopped eating, it is hard to correctly season a stew when it all just tastes like cardboard anyways. If Sookie was going to stay with me I was going to have to employ a cook part time. I knew Pam certainly would have nothing to do with the sterile kitchen on the main floor. And I would never have asked her to. That was if Sookie was going to stay, and seeing as I had not asked her that question yet, I was perhaps putting the horse ahead of the cart.

I was waiting at my desk when she emerged, and I could not help but smile at her, wrapped in some of my towels, glowing and looking calm and relaxed finally.

"Are you working?" She asked me in a casual manner I loved to hear from her, it was so benign, something a couple would ask one another after years of being together. It was comfortable.

"Just a few things I need to finish. I have made up the bed for you, and left you something to eat on the bedside table." One of the many perks of my preternatural speed was being able to accomplish such tasks very rapidly.

"Are you going to come to bed soon?" She cocked her head, and smiled with a corner of her mouth at me. It was coquettish, and I am certain she knew it.

"I thought I would simply sleep out here today, you have been through a terrible event, and I thought you might want your peace."

"Oh." She sounded fairly disappointed.

"Did you want me to join you?" I asked, tried to sound sincere and not gleeful. I think I managed it.

"Well, yes, I'd like that."

"Then if it is what you would like, I will do just that." I rose from the desk and closed the laptop that I had already shut down, to follow her to the bedroom. As I peeled off my shirt to toss it in the hamper, I watched as she first sat, and then lay down on the bed, still concealed in her towel. I kept my jeans on and lay beside her.

I reached across her to shut off the bedside light, brushing across her chest lightly, yet on purpose. You might wish to believe that I was being cruel, by teasing her thusly, but it was as much for her comfort as my own arousal. I offered her every chance to stop me and curb my affections should she still be unsure. Really I was being quite sensitive to her desires. Really.

Her warm fingertips brushing over my own chest followed her indrawn breath. I shuddered involuntarily for her.

"Do you want me to touch you Sookie?"

"Yes." I heard her answer as much as felt it, and I indulged her, pushing the towel away from her. The room was dark but I could see the beautiful glow of her skin. I let my hands dance over her breasts and felt her tremble underneath me. She reached for my neck and twined her hands around it, pulling my face down to hers. Her lips were parted when I met them, and strong. She wanted me, and I wanted her. I let my hands continue to run along her body even as I pushed my tongue into her mouth. Her arms pulled my body to hers even as she raised her hips to meet mine. I could not doubt that she felt my growing desires for her. I pulled my mouth away from hers and let it trail down her throat. I did not wish to bite her, at least not yet and so I only teased, drawing the points of my now exposed fangs along the fragile flesh, feeling her tense and quiver in anticipation of my sting.

"Do you want me to make love to you?" I asked as my lips lit on her nipple, swirling my tongue over its smooth brown center, feeling it rise to my touch, much as I had risen to hers.

"Yes." She breathed to me, her hands now tugging at the waist of my jeans.

"I need to taste you first." I paused between each word I spoke to her as I continued my ministrations to her skin. She turned her head to expose her neck to me, but as loud as the blood in her veins sang to me, and as much as its sweetness called, it was another sweetness I desired and I let my kisses follow down her belly even as my hands parted her thighs. She moaned before I even gave her my first kiss, and cried out after I did.

Her body was like honey, like rich butter, like all the proper sweetness in the world that I remembered from my mortal being, and all the immortal glory of the blood, her blood that pulsed so close to the surface of her skin, so close that its pleasure mingled with us both.

"I need you Eric."

"And you shall have me, my lover." My skin might have been cold, but she gave me warmth, and I returned it to her as I plunged myself into her and pulled her body to mine, intent that I would never let her go. Her actions seemed to indicate a mutual desire. It pleased me greatly and I made every effort in my not inconsiderable arsenal to show her.

**More plot next time, promise,**

**Reviews are love.**


	34. Chapter 34

A now, by request, a bit more fluff and some plot progression.

An apology to those lovely reviewers that I haven't been able to get back too this past week. I sincerely appreciate every word that you have written and you make me feel so good about crafting this story. Things are winding up and I would love to hear what you think of the journey thus far.

Thank you,

Merick

Part 34

"Darling? Can you bring some rum up from the back please?"

She knew I could hear her, even though I was in my office and she was organizing things behind the bar. She counted on me being able to hear her in fact. As for the 'darling', well, we were the only ones in the club at the time, and so I tolerated the term of endearment she had chosen for the evening. Now don't get me wrong, I say tolerate, not in a misogynistic kind of way, but in a self-preservation vein. I am still the Sherriff of Area Five, and still the most powerful vampire in a great many states, I am also a businessman, and part of my business relies on the fear factor my brooding yet dangerous visage lends me; most nights at least. (On ladies night, it requires another personality entirely, tonight being Ladies night.) Darling just will not cut it around here.

"Could you bring some vodka too please sweetie?"

Okay, that one annoyed me.

I set the two cases on the bar for her, and she smiled brilliantly at me. I love that smile.

"Is that all right honey?" I asked her, in the most sarcastic tone I could muster. She wrinkled her nose at me. We ended up laughing at each other. It felt good; kind of carefree, but do not tell anyone I said that otherwise I will deny it; vehemently. Sookie was working tonight; she worked all the ladies nights, which were Thursday, and she also worked Friday and Saturday. Thursdays I worked behind the bar with her; we had made such a profit that first night we had tried it that Pam had insisted we create the tradition. Hence the other personality I mentioned above. When I am behind the bar I need the women to 'want' me. You understand I am certain. I mean, part of my business at the club has always been the customers who come in trying to catch my attention and garner my favors, men and women alike, but most especially on ladies night, when the easiest way to get close to me is to order a drink, at ten dollars a piece. It would not do to have my girlfriend gushing over me, driving away all those credit cards. Sookie understood, better than I did I must say, about the women hitting on me. Never once had she shown any jealousy with their clever and not so clever offers. I cannot call myself quite as magnanimous when it comes to the men.

Sookie is beautiful, even moreso to humans now that she regularly takes my blood. Vampire blood makes a human seem to glow, and of course it deals with most injuries and issues as well so that the complexion always looks flawless, the lips redder, the eyes brighter. Not that Sookie actually needed any kind of enhancement, she was always perfect, but it did bring the men to her side of the bar, as opposed to Arthur's on many occasions. Their pick up lines were usually quite pitiful, if not persistent. Arthur dealt with many of them; he still felt a need to protect Sookie, which I appreciated, be it out of his own guilt or his sense of self-preservation. But the times when the men would not leave off I watched her; (I always watch her), lean over the bar towards them and say that she would have to check with her boyfriend first. Then she would look up at me, on the dais, and smile. I would smile back, fangs extended, and that usually took care of things, mortal and immortal. Secretly I think she enjoys the attention and the validation of her beauty, but she knows that I love her, and she loves me just as much. Our bond is stronger than it has ever been, due in part to the fact that we spend most every night together, and share blood every time we make love.

"Thanks Eric." She pulled the cartons down effortlessly; my blood had other advantages as well.

It had been six months since we had broken the spell that had held her memories captive, and since we had banished the witch from the state. There had not been any tell of her since, and that suited me just fine. I still wondered if I should have just killed her, and part of my mind nagged at me for that choice, worried that it, or she, would yet come back to haunt me. I had yet to convince Sookie to finally move away from Bon Temps completely, but her reluctance was wearing down with every night she had with me. I spoiled her terribly.

She still worked for Sam Merlotte, at the beginning of each week, she just couldn't bring herself to quit completely. I had done my best to send him some good leads on help, but it seemed he had as much trouble keeping waitresses; Sookie excepted, as I had keeping bartenders. She stayed with him those few days out of that innate sense of loyalty she has, and I cannot completely fault her for that, even though I know it has gotten her into trouble, as much as it has served her. The days she stayed in Bon Temps I made every effort to meet her at her house after her shifts, and even though it meant spending the day in the earth, either under her guest room closet, or in the woods, it was worth the 'discomfort' to have those moments with her, even if it was just watching movies with her in my arms. I think one of the other reasons that Sookie stayed in Bon Temps was to maintain her Grandmother's house because she really did not have much else holding her there as far as I saw it. Okay, there were her friends and her brother, but they seemed to be spending more time at Fangtasia all of a sudden, and their talk, which they believed I did not hear, was all about how Sam was getting ornery all of a sudden. Sadly, most all of them, excepting Sookie again, seemed more interested in speculating as to the reasons and spreading the latest gossip instead of looking to help the man. So far, my help had not been requested, though I expected that it would, likely sooner rather than later if I knew my Sookie, and her loyalty. It did not mean though, that I did not try to take her mind away from Bon Temps, given the opportunities.

"You know Sookie?" I leaned over the bar to reach out for her hand. "We should get away for a little break."

"Really?" She looked up from replacing the empty liquor bottles with the full ones I had brought. She took my offered hand and I marveled in how soft and warm her skin was. I craved her touch.

"Yes," I jumped over the bar, to corner her against the back wall. "We should take a vacation." I brought my face down to hover over her neck, kissing her quickly there as I let my hands run up the sides of her body. I purred just quietly into her ear. It had been a few days since I had been with her, business had kept me in Shreveport till long after her bedtime, and as much as I desired her, I would not demand her attention at the expense of her health, at least not regularly.

"Eric." She scolded me, "Pam is going to be here soon." The smile on her face did not say she wanted me to stop, just the opposite in fact.

"We have five minutes." I told her as I nipped her neck again.

"Well then."

In an instant I had her back in my office, laid out on my desk. Thank the gods she had worn a skirt for me, and not those silly black shorts from Merlotte's. I pushed it right up around her hips and let my hands part her thighs as I brought my mouth down to her and began to tease her quite mercilessly. I know just where to touch her to make her squirm, and just how long to torture her before she releases herself to me. The way she moans and the way she twines her fingers into my hair are good clues, beyond what I can feel through our bond. And when she reached that point, in very short order, I knew that I needed to be inside her to finish us both. In a blur I changed positions and drove myself into her, loving the sound of her cries as I thrust myself against her desperation. Her nails raked down my back, the smell of my blood filling the room, mingling with the sex as she let herself go for me. With a roar I joined her, a roar that almost downed out the voice of my child in my head.

"Honestly Eric? Bloody Rabbits." I burst out laughing, and Sookie, now sensing it from my mind did the same. I kissed her hard. She had fit herself into my life so easily, it was as if she had always belonged there. And yes, I acknowledge that it had been she who had made most of the sacrifices in our relationship. I loved her for that. And, as I have said before, she understood me.

She pulled herself back together with a twisted up grin on her face and told me that she was heading back out to the bar to finish setting up for the night. Pam took the opportunity to enter the office, brushing past Sookie with her eyebrows raised to chastise me with one of her powerful looks of disapproval. Honestly, sometimes I think she forgets who is the child and who the maker.

"You two should get a room you know."

"We have one, in fact we have several." I replied, as deadpan as I could make my voice while still hearing Sookie snickering behind the bar.

"You're working tonight?"

"Of course, it is Thursday."

"Just try to keep your hands off her if you can Eric."

"I can control myself just fine Pam."

"But you do make me wonder Eric." She turned to leave, having admonished me sufficiently for her liking, but I stopped her.

"I am going to take Sookie away for a few days Pam, you will be in charge of things while I am gone."

"Meetings?"

"No, pleasure."

"Good, then you can perhaps get some of this schoolboy foolishness out of your system."

"I have never been a schoolboy, you will have to explain that to me Pam." I knew I was prodding her.

"One day you are going to start a fire Eric." And she walked away. I could not help but to laugh again. I was having an excellent night; perhaps that should have been a warning about another shoe dropping in the not too distant future.

"There really aren't many places we could go to Eric, we don't really have to go away. We could just drive up to New Orleans for the night." She was trying to talk me out of a vacation, but it was half hearted, I knew she loved the idea, but she was correct, my nature did rule out a great many destinations.

"I know that choosing a destination will be difficult, but not impossible. The world is opening up to Vampire tourism, albeit slowly."

"It'll be really hard to think about you stored away in the cargo hold of an Anubis flight Eric. Dallas is one thing, but much further makes me uncomfortable." Of course she was referring to the preferred airline of the undead. Anubis had tailored its business around serving vampire clientele preferentially with indoor hangers and small planes and transfer services that were above reproach. Having flown with them before I certainly found them preferable to the old transatlantic crossings on a ship. If any mode of travel made you feel like Nosferatu well that was it.

"It really is the safest way, we'll fly overnight anyways, anywhere you want."

"Anywhere Eric?" That response did make me feel somewhat apprehensive, and I purposely kept myself out of her thoughts, not wanting to view the can of worms I had just inadvertently opened.

"Just so long as they have a proper hotel for us, and a good night life." I knew I was going to regret limiting my conditions to those few, but I also knew that she deserved some time away and I had been remiss in not planning something for us much earlier.

"And you're sure you can take a holiday Eric?"

"If the Sherriff of Area five cannot even give himself a few days off then it says very little for his abilities to control his assets."

"I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I'll take that as a yes then shall I?"

"You can use the computer at home to start planning."

She held my hand tightly. I could feel her practically vibrating with excitement as we stood just past the railway platform stairs. In front of us the narrow main street stretched forward, lined with shops and fronted by light posts whose beacons lit the night, not to make it seem as day, no, that would have destroyed the atmosphere. Here it was all right for it to be night, it did not calm the excited atmosphere a wit. Soft music played in the background, an unobtrusive mixture of classical orchestras and turn of the century ragtime and jazz precursors. As we looked up the street we saw at its very end a castle, lit by spotlights to emphasize its spires and the fairytale quality of its white stone. I could see and hear the flow of the small moat around it, though I doubted Sookie could. The castle was nothing special to me, I had seen hundreds in my time, many far grander than this, and far more practical in their strategic planning, it was looking at Sookie that gave me the most pleasure.

Her eyes were wide, and the glow of the streetlights made them sparkle even more than usual. Her lips were parted in an innocent awe of everything that she was taking in, which told me that despite my reservations in her choice of destination that it had been the correct one for her.

"Eric, it's more beautiful than I could have ever imagined." She whispered almost reverently, it amused me to hear it considering the location, but again, this holiday was about her, and about me being a partner to her, and about repaying her for every sacrifice she had made to be with me. We would never walk hand in hand on a sunlit beach together, we would never watch a sunset or a sunrise in each other's arms, there would be no lunches together on outdoor patios in France or bicycle rides by the Danube. I had seen all these things in her mind before, dreams she had put away to be with me. But this place, this place offered a great deal that we could share, that would make her heart light, and that was what I desired. I bent down to kiss the top of her head, loving the smell of her hair, the fairy, the flowers and my lover.

"Thank you so much for coming with me." She said, her eyes still caught by the castle lights.

"There is nowhere I would rather be than here with you right at this moment my beauty." I meant it in complete honesty. "But my lover, I must insist upon one thing."

"Of course, anything Eric."

"Please, do not ask me to wear one of those silly hats with the mouse ears on it."

Her laughter was the sweetest music to me then, just as it has always been, and she tugged on my hand, pulling me down Main Street USA, and off to the left fork at the town square, headed for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

**Thanks to those who have taken the time to review, you give me the will to write.**


	35. Chapter 35

Well folks, it's been a great ride, I have so loved exploring this reversal with you. Thank you for all your reviews. Witches is going to take a little break now, though you may notice that it isn't quite done. There is another adventure in story for Sook and Eric. Do let me know if you want to hear more.

Thanks to CH for the characters and all the readers for the inspiration.

Merick

Part 35

I have to give the Disney folks some credit, you really wouldn't think that 'The Happiest Place on Earth" would exactly cater to vampires, or draw them as tourists for that matter. But just like a lot of other businesses that had adapted after The Great Revelation the folks at Disney had made some allowances. They called them Midnight Magic hours, staying open till two am most weekends. Initially there was not a great deal of traffic, but as vampires, like myself, found human companions the flow increased. And of course, there were always the teenaged kids who came to gawk. You did not feed at Disney, that was well understood, and enforced by the Sherriff of that area, but True Blood was available, a little more discretely than the popcorn and Mouse ice cream treats. They liked to pour it into souvenir glasses, something about not walking around with glass bottles. I had my doubts, but the smile that graced my lover's face the entire time we were there was worth any minor inconvenience to me, not that I actually drank the stuff.

I should add that Disney had actually hired a great many vampires, but mostly to do behind the scenes work over night; repair and maintenance of the rides, and the park itself, as well as transportation and delivery. Not many vampires worked out in the open, I think mostly because they had too much pride to wear name tags that ended all their names in a 'y' or an 'ie'. Tommy, Abby, Robby, I shudder to think what they would have done with my name. And yes, I know the suffix of Sookie's name: it is not the same.

We stayed at the Polynesian Resort. I could not give Sookie the day at the beach she might have wanted; but she did steal away during the day to sunbathe, I love the tan on her skin, it makes her look so alive. But the resort did give us the chance to walk on a moonlit beach, even if it was not a real ocean and if a truck had hauled the sand in. And the night at EPCOT gave her the walk on the streets of Paris, Italy and Morocco, as well as the shopping, which I love to indulge her with. And I cannot even do justice to the shopping at Downtown Disney. Fortunately I make a very good living; we needed another suitcase to bring everything home. Sookie insisted that we buy gifts for Arthur and Pam, I let her choose, but I could not wait to see their reactions. Did you know you can customize those mouse hats, and even get names embroidered on them?

It was only four days we were away, but it was a rest for us both, at least mentally, that girl dragged me over I do not know how many acres of property, searching for hidden Mickeys, a game I apparently excel at, and oohing at the flowers, fountains and fireworks. I do not know that I have ever seen Sookie smile as much or as genuinely as she did then, and I knew she was happy. Her attentions to me, when we did return to our light tight room proved it, as if I needed any proof. For a few hours before sleep it certainly was the happiest place on earth, at least for the two of us. As we lay, in the glow after our lovemaking, before the sunrise, me kissing her slowly and gently over her face and neck, she turned to me, the ever-present smile softened into the languid curl I loved to see on her face.

"Eric?"

"My lover?"

"Being with you, is so wonderful." Her voice sounded so dream-like, perhaps emulating the numerous magical creatures we had seen over our nights there; real and otherwise. It seems the weres also enjoyed Disney.

"Thank you." I replied.

"You make me happy."

"And you do the same for me."

"I haven't had a great deal of abject happiness in my life Eric."

"I know." I continued to stroke her with just the tips of my fingers feeling her skin quiver under my touch.

"Now that I've found something that makes me so happy I wonder why I don't just embrace it fully?"

"What do you mean my lover?"

"I don't want to be without you anymore Eric, when we get home I want to move my stuff out to Shreveport."

"Really?" I was incredulous, I had expected that I would have to work at persuading her for at least a year, especially as summer was still in its radiant glory, and her little house surrounded by the verdant splendor that I know she loved.

"Not everything I mean, you're house really doesn't lend itself to the copious knick knacks that Gran has collected. But I'd like to bring my stuff, everything I'd need to stay with you all the time. Would that be okay?"

Okay? What a silly question she asked me. Her constant presence had been my fondest desire for months. I missed the scent of her in my rooms when she was back in Bon Temps, though it lingered in my bed, as did I on those days.

"I would love nothing more my darling Sookie than to have you come and be with me."

Her languid smile broadened and she snuggled into my arms a little more fully.

"Good." She whispered, before throwing a leg over mine, and pulling herself to straddle me. That action surprised me because I thought that she was quite spent after our already full night.

"I love you Eric."

"I know, I love you too Sookie." She began to grind herself against me very slowly, not that it took much encouragement to bring me to a solid arousal. I brought my hands to rest on her hips to feel the swaying run through my arms. Sometimes I wished I could not see so well in the dark unless I closed my eyes, and I was generally much to aroused to do that, I was denied the surprise of where she would touch me next. She bent forward to kiss me very softly on the mouth, and I felt the sigh escape her lips as she did so. I let my hands continue to dance over her warm skin carefully, tracing the lines her bikini had left on her skin after her sunbathing. She would never be as pale as I, even when the winter came, but it made us a good match I thought. I raised my hips against hers and watched a ripple cross her chest. I might not be able to keep her warm, but I sure as hell could make her hot. Or was that vice versa? It was becoming difficult to keep a coherent thought in my head as her body moved against mine and mine responded. I moaned in an amusing frustration for her, she loved to bring me up, and sometimes I really loved to let her do it.

"Where do you find your energy?" I asked her, a bit of a laugh in my voice, because I certainly was not complaining.

"It must be your blood lover." And she put her head down again, and nipped at my neck.

"Then you should take it." I made to raise a hand to scratch my skin for her but she stopped me.

"Not yet lover." And with a shift of her hips and the soft palm of her hand she guided me into her depths. I moaned again, and this time it was not out of amusement. She rocked herself against me to a rhythm I could not hear, but that I enjoyed immensely.

"Gods Sookie," I breathed out, finding it more and more difficult to put words together as my passions built. "What you do to me." Her hands came to rest hard on my chest as she braced herself against my hips and began to work me harder. Her weight meant nothing to me, but her strength was intoxicating.

Again and again she worked herself over my desperation, harder and faster each time as her own climax built. Her eyes closed as I then enjoyed watching her body; the way her breasts moved, the flat stomach that rolled over as she thrust, the beads of perspiration on her neck; such a beautiful neck, now completely unblemished as my blood running through her veins healed every ardent kiss and bite I gave it.

Her breath began to come in shorter and shorter bursts, and I knew she was close and so I drew one hand close to her body to slide it in between us so that I could touch her in a most sensitive spot, and feel her body and my own as she pulled me into her and released me. It was an incredible feeling, not only on the obvious part that was receiving her attentions, but to touch yourself as you were being consumed, and to touch her, and feel the shivers that resulted from the feather strokes I gave her. Her cry was quiet, but powerful as I felt her body convulse against mine, a movement that forced my own climax, for which I had to hold onto her hips again, unwilling to let her leave me, unwilling to lose her body just then to the sheets and blankets of the bed. I needed her touch, and when she collapsed against me, and I continued to pump into her it was bliss. I rained kisses down on her neck and then finally tore my own skin for her, coaxing her lips wordlessly to take the blood that pooled against my not so chilled flesh. Her mouth against my skin, and the action of her tongue as she fed from me could have brought me to another orgasm if it had not been my third of only the past twenty minutes. I may be superhuman, but even I have brief limits. I held her to me for as long as I was able, but finally her fatigue forced me to let her go, and lay her carefully back beside me.

"I will make love to you every night Sookie Stackhouse, and we will make a fine home together." I watched her lick the last of my blood from her lips, very slowly, and then close her eyes. "I will love you forever."

We flew home at night, as Anubis often does for short trips, but still I was secreted away in a travelling coffin, just in case there were delays. For me the flight was quite peaceful because I did nothing but rest and dream of my lover. There would be time enough, and duty enough to draw my mind back to much more mundane things once we had landed, but for those last few hours I was still going to be on vacation. I could feel Sookie seated in the traditional seats just above the area where the coffins were stored, she was happy, excited about our soon to be living arrangements, and just a little sad about the decision to finally leave Sam and Merlotte's. I cannot admit to having those same feelings about her leaving that bar. I could not protect her there and I did not trust Sam to protect her, and Bon Temps was sort of like some kind of Nexus for terrible supernatural happenings. I preferred that she was closer to me, and to justify my point to myself I only had to think over the past six months, where not one life-threatening thing had happened to her. Not to say that was all my influence, but I like to imagine that a great deal of it was mine.

Everything was peaceful as we flew, even as we landed but I began to feel some anxiety from Sookie as I was waiting to be deplaned, anxiety that grew into an almost frantic panic that made me want to tear myself out of the coffin. Fortunately for my deposit I felt movement that signaled my freedom, and I pushed hard on the lid as I heard the latch pop, springing out to find Sookie. She was standing by our suitcases in the private hanger, staring at her cellular phone, something I noted I had not seen for the whole of our vacation; she must have just turned it back on when we landed.

"Sookie!" I did not care if anyone in the hanger heard my own anxious voice, they could all be damned. "What has happened?"

She looked away from the screen, as pale as a ghost, or a vampire, hands trembling, eyes opened wide. There were tears forming in normally bright orbs, I could see them glistening. I rushed to her side in my typical blur, fortunately the staff were quite used to that and I do not believe that I overly frightened anyone.

"What has happened?" I repeated my question.

"It's Sam," she said on a quiet trembling breath, "he's dead."

Bloody Hell.


	36. Chapter 36

Well great thanks for everyone's patience as I worked on some of my other ideas, (and published my other little thing, Fang girls know what I'm talking about). Its time to get back to Eric and Sookie, and those witches. I hope you all like the direction we are going to be working in. As always, I love your reviews and comments and suggestions.

And I thank CH for these wonderful characters.

Part 36

I did not ask any questions, there really were not any to ask right then. We travelled to Bon Temps at my speed and went immediately to seek out Jason, he had been the one to send the message to Sookie. He gave us what details he had, and a call to Andy Bellefleur added little else, possibly because it was very late, though he answered as best he could, and as politely as he could considering he was half asleep. I wanted to tell Sookie to go back to the house, but I did not. The determination and grief in her eyes did not need to be furthered by my attempts to calm her. She insisted on going to Merlotte's, the place where they had found Sam, two days earlier, on the floor of his office, blood around his ears, nose and mouth, but otherwise unmolested. She had a key, I did not know exactly what she hoped to find by going there, but she needed to do it, and she needed me to be with her when she did. She had been so strong, ever since we had left the airport. The few tears that had threatened then had been the last ones I had seen until the moment she walked into his office. Nothing about it was different as far as I could tell, but of course I had not spent years of my life coming in and out of it. I stood in the doorway, unsure if I should join her or not. I waited for some signal from her, and it came in the form of a deep sob and so I rushed to gather her in my arms and hold her as she finally let herself fall apart. She cried for a good while, and I simply stroked her hair and held her close to my chest. I did not whisper platitudes, or tell her how much I loved her; it was not what she needed. She needed me to be her rock, and so I was.

I managed to get her home, to her home, with a minimum of fuss; she was exhausted, mentally and physically. I lay with her on the bed until she fell asleep and then I left her in peace hoping she would be able to sleep for a good many hours, she needed it. I did not dare leave her alone in the house, even with our bond to alert me to any danger or distress she might find herself in, for despite the relative peace of the last six months I could not delude myself into thinking that evil would not find her again, it was drawn to her it seemed, and I did not exclude myself from that group. If it did come that night, or even the next day I would be at her side in milliseconds, and so I made my way around the house, drawing all the curtains and closing the shutters so that if I did need to rise from my daytime slumber I would have a few more moments of safe ability before the sun began to burn me.

Precautions in place I sat myself on the couch to review in my head what little details we had, and what little I had been able to discover myself as Sookie had slumped in my arms in Sam's former office, crying for her lost friend.

It had been Holly who had found Sam, when she had arrived for her shift two days prior. The doors had been unlocked in the back, as Sam always left them after he arrived, and nothing about the bar had seemed out of place until she went to stow her purse in Sam's desk. Andy had described the scene as if he had simply dropped there. And his descriptions were borne out in what I had observed. Nothing was overturned; there was very little blood on the floor or on Sam for that matter, and no signs of a struggle. Nothing had been taken, at least nothing that Holly had noticed missing, and the safe had not been touched. It looked more as if Sam's body had simply materialized there where it fell. Sadly I knew that something like that was easily possible. And if that was what had happened then it would not be an easy crime to solve, if it was in fact a crime. It could have been a simple heart attack for all any of us knew, the county coroner had not come back with his report yet. I really was hoping for that answer, because then, even though it would still be an unhappy occurrence for my Beauty, it would not be sinister. But of course none of the denizens of Bon Temps ever seemed to pass in a benign fashion, did they?

Andy, who for some reason was beginning to see me as some kind of colleague, perhaps the sheriff title, had offered me a copy of the reports as they came in. Perhaps he just understood that I was going to get copies anyways in my own fashion. He did not believe it was just a heart attack, I could tell that without even being telepathic, I did not know if Sookie had investigated his thoughts, though I suspected she had not, it had been a very difficult night for her. I looked forward to the reports to see what they would add.

I had my own observations of the bar that the police would never have noticed, unless they were supernatural, and while nothing physical had been disturbed the energy of the place had been. It was subtle, but it was off, as if some fabric had been torn, the feeling was familiar to me, but after a thousand years so many were, it would take me awhile to place it in a proper context, and I knew it would likely be the occupation of my mind during the day sleep, something that was fast approaching. I checked in on Sookie for a last time, and adjusted the blankets over her, ones she had torn away in her sleep. She was not resting well; I could feel that through our bond, I tried to impose some calm over her, to lend her the strength I was able to keep about myself. I would like to believe that it worked, as she seemed to settle somewhat. I leaned in to kiss her, still loving the scent of her hair, and the feel of her velvet skin against my lips. Just that touch brought me the peace to sleep on my own as I would that day, just as I kept the sheets she slept against on my bed in my home until her return, I felt unsettled without her now, and I pushed away the thoughts of my loss, because she had said she wished to come live with me finally, and I saw that possibility fading quickly, something that tore at my dead heart. It was selfish, and perhaps unnecessary, to worry as I was doing, but as I have said before, nothing in Bon Temps is ever simple it seems.

I went to the safe resting place that Sookie had originally made for Bill Compton. But I did not let that fact bother me. It was a hole in the earth, a convenient shelter whomever it had first been meant for. If I had superstitions about such crypts and their occupants I would never have spent time in the catacombs of Rome or France, and I would have missed a great deal. Though I would have preferred spending my day with her, I knew she would need the time to do her own investigating, and I knew I could not stop her. I only prayed that whatever things that did go bump in the night in Bon Temps would stay abed during the day. I closed up the trap door and let my mind wander.

I heard her rise, in my half-dream state, and it was late, which I was pleased at. She had listened to her body finally and allowed it what it needed, proper rest. I felt our bond spring to a more conscious life, though it had always been there, in the back of my mind. She showered, and made coffee, even in my sleep I could smell it, and it wove its way into the thoughts I was having, returning my mind to meetings I had held when I passed for a human in Europe, when I had used my talents to build up, I would like to call it my empire, but it is far from that. My holdings shall we say? Humans have always used the brew to keep themselves awake, which they needed to do to meet with me. That and cigarettes, I was very happy that Sookie did not smoke, the burning tobacco, processed as it is into the sticks of the day smells vile and reminds me of garbage more than a sweet herb. But the images of the smoke and the stained coffee mugs awakened more than just memories to me, they put me on the cusp of something important, and I strained for it, even semi conscious.

The scent, the scent of coffee, there was something about that. Or was it something about a meeting? Damn, I could not admonish my semi-conscious self too much, for obvious reasons. I let the waves carry me where they would, hoping that the answer would reveal itself to me, even as I listened to my lover above me. She went out, but not for long, and when I did wake fully she was home, sitting at the kitchen table, a few papers in front of her, her cell phone temporarily quiet, and a pencil and pad. She looked up to see me, forcing a smile onto a peaked face that hardly looked rested. She had pulled her hair back into her efficient ponytail, which I hated, and done minimal make-up, not that she looked any the worse for wear without it.

"How was your day my beauty?" I walked to her at a sedate pace, as much as I simply wanted to sweep her up in my arms and kiss all of her pain away.

"Andy gave me a few things for you, and I went over to Sam's trailer to see if there was anything there."

"What did you find?" I sat down beside her and took the papers she offered.

"Nothing." She sobbed, and let her head fall into her hands.

"My darling." I wrapped my arms around her collapsed shoulders and drew her to my chest. "You cannot take on the whole responsibility for solving this mystery yourself."

"Andy is out of his league, you know that Eric."

I did.

"This isn't a normal crime Eric, just read the reports." I did that as well. To give the coroner credit, he had done a very thorough job, though I wished Sookie had not read the autopsy reports, the imagery of that could not have helped her mindset any. He reported no obvious signs of external trauma, no bruising, no petechiae in the conjunctivae, or anywhere else for that matter, so he hadn't been asphyxiated or beaten. His heart was in perfect shape, his lungs as well, no signs of drowning. The blood on his face had not been explained, but I saw no mention of any examination of his ears, and I made a note to ask Andy about it, though it was probably nothing. The only thing they were waiting on were toxicology reports, those took a few weeks as I understood, especially coming from a low profile rural setting such as Bon Temps. I could have made some calls, had things sped up, but it would not have changed the fact that Sam was still gone, and Sookie was still suffering.

"I will see what I can do Sookie." I offered, still not certain exactly what that might be, but needing to say something to reassure her.

"Would you Eric?"

"Of course I will. Let me wash up," I was a little dusty from my day in the ground, "and we will start making calls together."

That seemed to liven her up just a little, and I felt it would be all right to have a quick shower. I encouraged her to try to eat something as well because I could feel her hunger. My beauty did neglect herself when she was concerned with others. She was on the phone when I returned, her home phone, twisting the ancient black cord into ringlets on her finger as she spoke, though she was not the one doing most of the talking, as her portion of the conversation was limited to yes's and no's. I refrained from listening in on the other speaker, and instead collected and warmed a bottle of Tru Blood for myself, I had not fed in more than a day, and while that was normally not a problem for me, I too was feeling hungry. Or perhaps it was just the bond?

"That was Terry." She told me as she joined me in the living room. I was surprised, I had not known the man to engage in long conversations before, he had been crippled by his PTSD, and while not immovable given the right stimulation, he was not one for chatting.

"Yes?"

"He says that the funeral will be the day after next. Andy has told him that the coroner is releasing the body to the funeral home in the morning. He wants to arrange it. I think I should help him."

"Of course you should. He could use the support."

Terry Bellefleur had one friend, besides his cousin, Andy, and that was Sam. Sam had given him a job, and a purpose. I could understand why he wanted to be the one to do this for him. But he would get overwhelmed, and I knew Sookie, as fragile as she was, would keep him on an even keel. In some ways Terry reminded me of another broken man with a locked up memory. I had not seen Bubba in a great while, and sentimentally I wondered if he was fairing well. It seemed it was a day and a night for memories, and perhaps that is as it should have been.

"I'll meet him tomorrow afternoon then, we can get it sorted."

"What would you like to do tonight?"

"You finish with the police report and then maybe we can go and see Holly, I'll bet she's still a mess about everything."

"And you will eat something?"

"I promise."

I held her to that promise, even though it was just a bowl of breakfast cereal with milk. It was something, and it helped calm my anxiety as well. The police report offered nothing Andy had not already disclosed, and coupled with the coroner's observations I knew that the mainstream policing was not going to figure it out. I did call Andy about my concerns with the autopsy, and while he seemed to dismiss my concerns about Sam's ears, he appreciated that the blood in them should have been investigated, likely an omission on the part of the new coroner. Mike Spence's replacement was another older man, set in his methods Andy related. I still marveled at the familiarity he was giving me. But even with his reassurances, the disturbance I had sensed weighed on my mind, and whatever its connection was to something in my past. I waited for my mind to sort it out as I tidied up after Sookie as she put on some makeup, and we went out to speak with Holly.

Sookie was right, she was a mess.


	37. Chapter 37

I know it's been an awful long time since I updated this story. It never felt right, leaving it hanging and all, but life, and another project got in the way, and I thought I should be fair and put on a 'completed' just so I didn't lead folks on. But hey, I've gotten back into a good frame of mind, and we do still need to sort out who killed Sam Merlotte, so if you will, I invite you back into the story.

I hope you enjoy the continuing adventures.

Merick

Chapter 37

If I had ever held the illusion that Sookie Stackhouse cried more than any other woman I had ever met, I was proved wrong upon meeting Holly, and I developed a new respect for Sookie's restraint. The house was a mess of used tissues and empty boxes, coffee mugs and blankets, tossed over every suitable surface. Holly was pale when she answered the door, if you did not count the red streaks on her face from the tears. She hurriedly gathered up fluffy masses from the couch, tossing them onto her dinning table so that we would have a place to sit. Of course she had to hug Sookie first, for a good few minutes and share a few more audible sobs before she could sink into a chair, still armed with a handful of Kleenex. Besides Sookie, Holly had held on the longest to Sam; I had been given to understand that Arlene had given up a good many shifts of late, and we had not yet had the chance to speak with Jessica; I had been wanting to leave her to the end of our list, just in case Bill was still with her. Our last meeting had been very unpleasant, and I held grudges for a very long time. I also had no intention of letting him harm Sookie or cast further dispersions about our relationship.

"I just don't understand who could do something like that to Sam?" She sobbed as Sookie and I settled ourselves onto her couch. Apparently she was under the same impression as everyone else we had spoken with; well Andy, Sookie, myself and perhaps Terry, that Sam had not gone gently into that good night. "I know he'd been having some problems, just not acting like himself sometimes. But I just can't believe he's gone."

"What do you mean by that Holly? That he hadn't been himself?" I had kept quiet since our arrival, and not that I did not trust Sookie to come to the same question, but I knew that seeing Holly in tears had shaken her tremulous confidence a bit, and I wished to spare her any pain that I could, acting the investigator when she could not just then.

"I don't know if I should say anything Mr. Northman?" She pursed her lips together in a sad smile, raising her eyebrows. She was obviously quite concerned about giving voice to something.

"Eric, please call me Eric." I said, hoping to put her at ease. I watched her shoulders sink a little, which I thought was good. She seemed to be relaxing, though her breaths were still punctuated by the occasional sob. "We all understand that we are not here to speak ill of Sam, only to solve the mystery of his passing." She nodded slowly, still seeming unsure of herself. I did not want to try to glamour her, not just then, I had no reason to believe that she would hold back anything.

"Well Eric," she began again, slowly. "He just seemed to change directions on people so quickly, like he had two different people in his head sometimes."

"How so Holly?" Sookie had gathered herself up a bit and was looking more intently at Holly just then. I assume that she was trying to look into her mind, but being a Wiccan, Sookie knew that she had to be very subtle in her efforts or Holly would sense it and shut her out.

"I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but he could be all sweet one minute and then the next just go off on you. I think that's why Tara quit. She couldn't handle his flirting one minute and then his angry words the next."

It was interesting to hear that Tara had quit, but not surprising, as she had been one of the most vocal patrons of Fangtasia of late, complaining about Sam that was. But of course, Tara complained about a good many things, I was actually surprised that she chose to come up to Fangtasia, but apparently her disregard for Vampires was not nearly as strong as her need to gossip and to see Sookie. Her complaints about Sam had been that he had suddenly gotten less flexible when she wandered in to work late, or poured herself a shot off the books for her own pity parties. I personally could not blame Sam for wanting to run his business, but the attitude he used certainly could provoke angry words from Tara. Now knowing that those words might have come from hurt was interesting. It seemed that perhaps we had more information suddenly about Sam. Not that I believed that Tara would kill him, I personally do not think she had the cunning to carry out something as efficiently as the murderer seemed to have done, but if he could be Jekyll and Hyde with her, perhaps he could have done the same to someone with more 'influence'. Or perhaps the dichotomy was the side effect of whatever had killed him? I filed those notions with the others and looked over at Sookie. I could feel a hesitance from her through our bond, but I didn't really need the bond to understand that she was uncomfortable with the fact that she hadn't noticed the changes in Sam. Of course she didn't see him as often as she had used to, and we had gone away for a bit, and of course, she never did try to see the bad in people, so it sometimes did make her a bit oblivious to things. It was one of her traits I loved so much, because she had given that gift to me. She reached out for my hand, I was happy to give it to her, but her strong grasp of it told me she had something else she needed me to know, something she dared not say in front of Holly. I knew it was time to leave.

"If you think of anything else Holly, please call Sookie or myself. We just need to find out the truth." I tried to offer her the reassurance that whatever it might be that she was hiding, that I had no interest in it. My only goal was to give Sookie some peace of mind, because I loved her, and because Sam was her friend. There was also the fact that nothing in Bon Temps was ever as simple as it seemed, and that my love was often in the center of that complexity. So of course, when I made my suggestions to Holly I did put a little bit of a compulsion behind the words.

Sookie pulled herself to standing and tried to smile at Holly, dropping my hand and reaching out her arms to take another hug from the woman. I knew what she was doing; the physical contact would make it easier to read Holly's thoughts. I admired Sookie for what she was able to do, because her own undercurrent of pain had never really abated. Her focus and her strength never cease to amaze me.

She said nothing until we were back in the car; she waved at Holly who was watching us both through her front window, another wad of Kleenex pressed to her face.

"What is it my beauty?" I asked as I leaned over to her, turning her face to mine with my fingertips under her chin.

"She was sleeping with Sam."

"Really?" That was a revelation I had not expected.

"She thinks she might be pregnant."

And that was another.

I had not been given to believe that having multiple sexual partners was in Sam Merlotte's nature. But Holly had indicated that he had been flirting with Tara, something that Sookie confirmed. He had flirted with her as well, she did not say it out loud, but I knew it. It did not bother me as Sookie came to my bed every night, and not his. But he had also been sleeping with Holly, and perhaps others. Sookie couldn't understand that, and agreed that it was quite out of character for Sam. I could not help but begin to think about the possibility that Sam had been killed by a spurned woman, and a witch (or a wiccan in this case) certainly could have accomplished the tidy job that had been left for the authorities to find. Conveniently Holly had been the one to find the body. Had she been the one to put it there as well? Could her skills as a Wiccan be enough to hide that from Sookie? My love did not believe so, but I reserved my judgment for the time being.

"I cannot believe that I didn't see any of that about Sam, Eric. I know he seemed cranky sometimes, but that was just him. He had his own demons, but they never took over for long." It was an interesting choice of words for Sookie. I had not considered the possibility of possession.

"Do not blame yourself for not seeing it Sookie." I knew she was doing it anyways, but I had to say it. "If Sam Merlotte was troubled he chose not to confide it in you. We should not guess at his reasons."

"I was a terrible friend to him." She dabbed at her own eyes.

"You were a good friend to him Sookie. Are you still are. You only see the good in him, and that is an honorable legacy. We will find out who did this."

"Are you sure Eric?"

"I make it a promise to you my beauty. I am not without means."

"Where should we go next?"

"I think we should speak with Tara."


	38. Chapter 38

A little interlude this time, sorry for the brevity.

Part 38

"Oh hell no!" Tara nearly leapt out of the brocade chair she had been inhabiting since we had arrived. We were at Lafayette's house, Tara had been alternating her living arrangements for quite awhile between Sookie's house and his, but since the murder she had settled herself a little more permanently with her cousin. I did not mind that at all. She seemed quite defensive when I asked her if she knew anything about Sam's death.

"Don't you even go there Eric!" Lafayette was actually holding her down in the chair as he stood behind her. He was a smart boy, her cousin. Pissing off Vampires is never a good idea. For my part I held my emotions in check, and my fangs retracted. "I had nothing to do with his murder!" She yelled at me.

"And I never said that you did Tara." I kept my tone even which appeared to infuriate her even more.

"I haven't even seen him since I quit!" She countered, not quite listening to my words, thinking herself a step ahead of me. I was trying very hard not to play her game.

"Why did you quit Tara?" Sookie's calm, quiet voice seemed to diffuse a little bit of Tara's anger, at least momentarily.

"I got tired of the way he was treating me."

I looked up at Lafayette, just to see what his reaction was. As far as I knew he was still working at Merlotte's. I saw his chest rise and fall with a deep sigh paired with a resigned smile. Apparently he also had his doubts about her professed motivation. But he was smart enough not to question her.

"I don't deserve to be treated like trash." Tara continued, oblivious to my change in focus.

"Tara," Sookie began again, leaning forward to just take her hands. Tara snapped backwards.

"Don't you be looking into my head Sookie, my thoughts are private!" This girl had a chip on her shoulder the size of an I-beam.

"Tara?" Sookie looked very hurt at the accusation. "Tara, I would never do that to you. I just need to ask you if you and Sam had been in a relationship."

"Why? Why do you need to know that? Why do you need to know any of this Sookie? Leave it alone! Let the police handle it, you aren't a detective, what does it matter to you?" The rapidity with which the statements tumbled from her mouth betrayed her obvious anxiety.

"Sam was my friend Tara, and yours too. I don't know what was happening with him, and maybe I should have, maybe it would have made a difference." I felt the sorrow flood through our bond, but I continued to keep my anger in check for her sake.

"You can't save everyone Sookie!" My beauty trembled with the rage thrown at her, but she kept up her questions.

"Holly said that Sam was flirting with you."

"Did she now? What else did the bitch say?" Tara cocked her head in that way she had, asking her audience to recognize her indignation. I had to step in; I was tired of her attitude and what it was doing to Sookie.

"Did you quit because Sam stopped sleeping with you?" Her head snapped back to face me. I heard Lafayette's indrawn breath and saw the muscles on his arms tense.

"And started sleeping with Holly? Or maybe it was the redhead he took to his office for an hour, locking the door behind them?" She countered.

"What?" And that was Sookie, who obviously had respected the order of her so-called friend.

"Some redheaded tramp, came in with a briefcase, asked to speak with Sam, looking like a lawyer, but she wasn't."

"How do you know?" That was my question of Tara.

"She didn't seem right." And apparently that was enough for Tara Thornton to judge a person's character and profession.

"When was this?" I continued.

"The day I quit." She crossed her arms. If ever 'a woman scorned' had a face, it was there in Tara. "So? Do you think I killed him Eric?"

"No Tara, I don't. Whoever killed Sam made a clean, efficient job of it," I felt Sookie cringe at my characterization, but I had had enough of Tara Thornton for a lifetime just then. "I doubt very much, with your passions, that you could have managed it." I then stood, and walked out of the house.

I was nearly to my car before I heard the porch door open again. I knew it wasn't Sookie, I hadn't expected her to follow me, in fact I had rather hoped that she wouldn't, and had tried to communicate as much to her through our bond. I had inflamed Tara to such a degree I thought that it was very likely that she would let slip some of the secrets she was holding inside, now that the big bad Vampire was gone. It was Lafayette that followed me.

"Eric?"

"Yes."

"You know Tara didn't do this, right?"

"Yes."

"She's just really messed up, with all the people around here who keep dying and leaving her. But she'd never hurt Sam."

"Who do you think could have done this Lafayette?"

"It couldn't have been someone around here Eric. Everybody loved Sam."

"Some more than others." I muttered, not caring if he heard me or not.

"Whoever the woman was who came to see him, I'm sure he didn't have sex with her in his office, he didn't look very happy when she left. Certainly not the face of a man who just got some from a ginger-haired beauty."

"Thank you for your candor." He nodded at me. "But can you tell me Lafayette, if Sam was changing so much, why didn't he confide any of his troubles in Sookie?"

His indulgent smile told me more than his words.

"He held it together for her Eric. If there were one person in the world that Sam would want to protect it would be Sookie. He would do anything to keep her from hurt. No offense Eric, but ever since she got caught up with you Vamps her life has been a series of sorrows, intermixed with serious harm. If Sam thought that he could do anything to keep her from any more he'd have given his life." Lafayette hesitated. "Maybe he did."

That thought gave me pause, and robbed me of any other questions I might have had for Lafayette. We simply looked at each other for a few silent moments. I did not need him to tell what was blatantly obvious; Sam had loved Sookie, it seemed she inspired that in a great many supernaturals. And we were the ones she needed protection from. I knew that I would give my immortal life for her, would it be so hard to believe that Sam would have as well? He had known her much longer than I.

I had always believed that any threat in Bon Temps would someday come around to Sookie, had Sam Merlotte stepped in front of that gun for her? Yet another thing to think about, and that thought had my gut roiling more than any of the others. When the screen door opened again I was happy to break our gaze and look over to see Sookie, alone. She walked down the steps, holding the rail a little more tightly than she needed to and went to give Lafayette a sad embrace.

"She don't mean it Sookie." He whispered to her, not that I was eavesdropping.

"I know." She shrugged her shoulders and dropped her head.

"Let me take you home Sookie. You must be exhausted." I offered, holding out my hand to her.

"I have to meet Terry tomorrow, to do the funeral planning." She said offhandedly, she sounded spent.

"You call me if you need anything darlin'" Lafayette offered as she came over to me, letting me guide her into the passenger seat of the car. I thanked him with my own silent nod, and got in beside Sookie, determined to take her away from her sadness, if not in body then in spirit, if only for a little while.


	39. Chapter 39

Part 39

Some days it seemed like no matter where I touched Sookie it could set in motion love play that would leave us both spent and wrapped in bliss. But that night I needed it to be different. My beauty was exhausted, and disheartened. Tara had offered nothing further but acrimonious bile, aimed at Holly, at Sam and at Sookie herself, and while she tried to write off the viciousness as a product of Tara's own sorrow, Sookie was having a great deal of difficulty with the task. I did not question her further, but only offered my similar observations about Tara, though with a less forgiving tone of voice. It was nearly midnight when we arrived back at Sookie's house, and since she had been up most of the day I encouraged her; mostly by picking her up in my arms and carrying her to the bed, to sleep. She tried to protest but I began to carefully caress her, undressing her in as chaste a way as I could manage. I let my fingertips rove over her back with more pressure than my standard feather touches, designed to arouse her. And as much as I wanted to make love to her then, I kept my hands from the obvious spots that would push her towards her edge. I ran my hands down her neck and on either side of her spine, pressing carefully at the knots that had formed there. I worked her shoulders similarly, bringing my mouth down to kiss her gently, listening all the while to her heartbeats, counting them silently to myself as they slowed into sleep.

"My love, I will return to you before the dawn and give you my blood so that you will have strength for the day ahead." She nodded slowly, eyes closed. "I am going to feed now, but I will never be far away from you."

"I love you." She mumbled on sleep-addled lips. "I don't know how I could get through this without you Eric."

"You will always have my love Sookie. Now sleep." I stood, wanting to simply wrap myself around her instead, but I left her be. Making another check of the house to ensure all the windows were latched and shades drawn I comforted myself that she was truly asleep. I did intend to go out and feed, but I also intended to make the walk across the cemetery to see if Jessica was still in Bon Temps, I purposely did not mention the intended visit to Sookie, because she would have insisted on accompanying me. And I was taking no chances on her meeting Bill Compton again. I had heard very little of him in the months since our last encounter, but it was certainly not out of the realm of possibility that he had returned to his only home and was hiding there.

I walked across the cemetery path, marveling in the quiet of the country. Not that Shreveport was a bustling metropolis, but it had very few moments of complete silence. Bon Temps was dead, if you pardon the irony of the statement, but for the sounds of the creatures of the night, of which I was one, and the being coming towards me another.

"Who's there?" Came the high, nervous voice I had once mentored.

"It is I Jessica."

"Eric?" She burst from the growth further along the path, sending a little cloud of lightening bugs into the air. "Oh thank god it's you Eric!" She nearly flew into my arms. Of course she was not as strong as I, but she clung to me with a strength I had not remembered.

"Jessica?" I peeled her off of myself. "What is going on around here?"

"I don't know Eric, but I'm scared. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know if I should call you or Pam, or who."

"Bill has not returned to you?"

"No, I haven't seen him in months, he just left me here, packed up a bag and took off." As happy as I was that Bill was not in Bon Temps I felt a rising anger at how he had treated his child. It seemed to me that he had been looking for every excuse to abandon Jessica, ever since he had brought her into our world. I knew he had not chosen to make her, but it was still no excuse to leave her alone.

"I am here now Jessica, tell me what it is that has you so frightened?"

"Haven't you heard it?"

"Heard what?"

"The howling?" I had to admit I had not but pressed her for more information.

"A terrible wailing out near Merlotte's like someone has been howling for Sam, except that they started a few days before he died."

"Have you heard it this night?"

"I haven't gone near Merlotte's since Holly found him, well, not since that night."

That explained why I had not heard the sound, we had arrived days after the event. Though it might seem egotistical, the possibility of missing something so obvious bothered me.

"Will you go out there with me now?" I intended to investigate immediately. Though I couldn't exactly say that Jessica looked paler at the suggestion, she certainly didn't look pleased about it. "I will protect you Jessica." I dropped my fangs for their effect; she shuddered but reluctantly agreed to accompany me.

Our trip was a quick one, Jessica had also become quite fleet of foot it seemed; the changes in her prompted a question.

"Jessica? Who have you been eating?"

She smiled shyly and dropped her gaze to the graveled carpark of Merlotte's Bar. Normally peppered with vehicles and security lights, it was abandoned, as dark as the building itself.

"Jason." She whispered.

It made sense, Sookie was part fairy, her brother must have inherited some of the traits as well. A steady diet of fae blood had made up, somewhat, for what Jessica's maker had denied her. And I well knew that just the presence of a fae near a Vampire had wondrous healing properties; not that they mattered as much in someone 1000 years old, but in one less than a decade they factored in considerably more. Neither of them had actually mentioned the relationship, but Sookie had been pulling away from Bon Temps and towards me little by little. And perhaps Jason and Jessica valued their privacy, or wished to spare themselves the embarrassment. I thought she had been going with another boy in Bon Temps, but I did not ask any further questions in that vein, there was no need.

"When have you heard the sound?"

"Usually after midnight. Before Sam died it was when I was getting off work, three nights in a row, around 2 am. The night I came back, it was earlier."

"And where was it coming from?"

"Around back, in the woods." There was staff parking at the back of the building, close to the dumpster, and the edges of the same woods than ran out to Sookie's place. It was a forest that you might imagine the whole of Bon Temps had been carved out of, excepting the stretches of pasture and farmland that bordered the only the source of natural water, a river, more of a creek, that also ran through the edge of Sookie's woods. From what little I knew of North American agricultural practices, those now open spaces could have been thick forest at one time also. It did not rouse my curiosity enough to put further thought into researching it though. Instead I walked around the building slowly, dismissing the sounds of my feet, and Jessica's on the gravel, concentrating on the noises of the woods, selectively identifying each one and pushing it aside.

"What did it sound like Jessica?"

"I don't know." Her voice had its own wailing quality to it, and I watched as her head darted around, scanning the woods as well as the buildings; she included Sam's trailer in the sweep, almost as if she expected something to emerge from it.

"Think Jessica." I tried to bring her back to focus. "You've been to Zoos. Did it sound like a particular kind of animal? A wolf, a coyote, a big cat of some sort?"

She pushed her fists to her temples and closed her eyes.

"I don't know Eric."

I was feeling an onset of frustration at her inability to recall the data I required, but I did not feel it for long as the still air was split by a plaintive wail that would have made my blood curdle, if that was even possible any longer. That was it would have if I had not heard it before. Leaving Jessica I tore into the woods, heading in the direction of the sound, though by the time I reached the clearing she was gone. Again I felt the disturbance she had left behind and the memories that had been sparked in Sam's office returned to me, and suddenly I had another piece of the puzzle; a piece that left me feeling cold.

"Eric?" Jessica's scolding tone did not sit well with me, especially coupled with the new threat I had identified, I wheeled on her, my fangs bared, a snarl on my lips. The expression stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Do not speak to me as if I am a petulant child Jessica. There are things at work here that are far beyond you." My anger, and if I can admit it, my anxiety, manifested themselves in harsh words to Jessica, but if she had been taught properly about respecting her elders by her now absent maker I would not have had to put her in her place as harshly as I did. She cowed before me.

"What do you know of the woman who visited Sam?"

"The red head?"

"Yes."

"I didn't see her myself Eric, she came during the day. All I heard was Tara complaining about her over at Jason's place. She showed up one night to tell him she'd quit. I think she was looking to see if he would comfort her, because she got really pissed to see me there."

I had to shake my head.

"Did Tara say anything else?"

"No, she just cursed a lot about Sam and that woman and about Holly, and she got pretty drunk, so Jason called Lafayette to take her home."

"Smart man, not wanting to get in a car with her."

"That's what I thought" Jessica still couldn't make eye contact with me.

I softened a little towards the frightened girl in the clearing with me. She was simply trying to find a place for herself in the new reality of her life and she had been a friend to Sookie. For those reasons I backed off.

"Does Jason treat you well?" If Bill could not be a parent to her, I could try.

"He does. It's not just all about sex either."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Can I help you to search Eric, for whatever this thing is?" I shook my head.

"You will not find her if she does not wish to be found, especially if you are a Vampire." Though there was no predation between our species, there was also no alliance.

"But what is she?"

"My dear girl, I think Bon Temps now has a Banshee."

**Reviews are Love **


	40. Chapter 40

Part 40

Ireland 1843

The castle was already in ruins by the time I climbed the stone steps. It had been a part of the landscape for longer than even I had been in that place, with its untended gardens overgrowing their confines, and the birds roosting in its peaks. I hadn't called the meeting that was coming, but I intended to attend it. It wasn't so much a threat that had been issued calling me there, but a warning, and that bothered me even more. I knew of nothing more powerful than my sanguine kin then, and for another supernatural species to call me out was the height of arrogance as far as I was concerned.

I stepped into the bloody chapel at the peak of the castle; aptly named because brother had slain brother there, a priest left to die over his altar, midway through his sacrament. Not to mention its other hidden gruesome secrets. Leap Castle had seen its share of evil, long before I ventured into its turrets, and it saw a great deal more after I departed.

I was not alone on the fragmented height; I had brought my lieutenant. Liam was only a few hundred years old, and not my child, but he had stood at my side since my arrival in Ireland. This was a time when Vampires stayed in the shadows, and I had been given the unofficial task of leading the clan; clan, because that was the name the natives preferred we use, and it struck a chord with me as well. Liam had presented himself to me as one who knew the ways of the people better than I; and who better to walk with me? It helped that my age brought respect and that he complimented it with his knowledge. He was playing with his pocket watch, something I had seen him do dozens of times; nervous energy perhaps, I'm not even sure why I bothered to remember that detail.

We stood on the stone floor, waiting in the dark of midnight, listening at first to the silence of the night, but gradually becoming aware of a growing presence, more in feeling than by sound at first, coalescing into a mournful peal and suddenly a fire burst into life before us, orange and yellow flames consuming something I had not originally noticed in the room. A heavy burnt smell, coupled with a sickening sweetness rose up in fog, not that it prevented Liam or I from observing the arrival of those who had set the meeting in the first place.

They came through the windows, three of them, all women. Their robes were not those of the human women I was used to seeing, and put me more in mind of the druids and ancient ones. The one who spoke, while the others flanked her was the youngest, with fiery red hair that fell in tresses around her face, over her shoulders ending in wisps over her breasts. Had I not felt so indignant towards them all I might have noticed her beauty.

"You must stop what you are doing to the people of this land." She announced, staring me square in the eye, she knew very well that I would not be able to glamour her, and she demonstrated her boldness to me with the action.

"And what exactly do you mean?" I goaded her. Putting my enemies at a disadvantage by attacking them verbally, to force them to stumble over their carefully prepared scripts and plans was a tactic I had used many times before.

"You take advantage of a tragedy to feed yourselves, believing that your kills will be ascribed to the famine. You glut yourselves on the poor of this land and you grow careless."

I did not believe we were growing careless, the blight on the staple crop was simply convenient, our numbers were not growing; we were simply not starving just then. It seemed a balance of fate, finally in our favor.

"If you will not tell your people to stop Northman, then we will move to stop you."

"I would like to see you try." Liam was not one for caution or subtlety and he stepped towards the women with an aggressive posture, fangs dropped, thinking he could frighten them. He had been of the same mind as I, that their powers would offer no challenge to us though at that moment then I was not prepared to test my hypothesis. Perhaps with age comes that wisdom? As for Liam, well, he made an error, and that was odd since he should have known better than I what the Banshees were capable of.

I watched as with a howl, (well two, one from the red-haired woman, and one from Liam), he was thrown backwards against an ancient door, falling into what was then called an oubliette. The name comes from the French, to forget, because that is what happened to all the other unfortunate souls cast into that pit. If they did not die immediately on the rows of sharpened spikes at the bottom of the thing, as Liam did, then they lingered, forgotten, forced to listen to the sounds of the castle around them until they finally succumbed.

I made no emotional show for the women and held my ground, not even looking back behind myself immediately to ascertain what had become of my companion. I checked on him later, spying out only the pre-existing pile of bones and the bloody remnants of his passing.

"Will you move on us too Vampire?" I was asked.

"I will not." At least I had no intentions of doing so just then.

"Then you will leave this place, with all your legions?"

"We are hardly legions, and no, I have no intention of leaving just yet." Her request was curious, and I wondered if perhaps her move against Liam had taken more of her energy than she wished to admit. I stood my ground and watched her, her confidence seemed a little shaken by my action, or rather non-action.

"We could destroy you."

"You could, and then these Legions you refer to would have no leader, and who do you think would keep them in check then? I would wager that you would see a great many more human deaths if I were not there to shepherd them. And I also wager that you cannot kill us all. Not before we kill you."

In a heartbeat I had one of her companions by the throat, holding her just over the fire they had created, squirming against my grip. The smoke curled around her body like fingertips. I dropped my fangs and looked at the speaker.

"I will keep my people from reckless abandon. But you will keep yours away from us." She stood silent for a moment, weighing her options it seemed, then she spoke slowly.

"A détente then? Between our peoples, for the good of the land?" She offered, holding her own expression as neutral as my own. I allowed myself a slight smile and let her companion down onto the floor.

"Yes. I will swear to that, for as long as I am here in your fair country."

She nodded as the woman took up her place once again.

"Then let us hope that we will never meet again Vampire."

"Unless it is for something far more pleasurable than this." I gestured to the smoke and the fire and the ruins around us.

"Do not insult offerings to the dead Vampire. We raise the herbs and whiskey in their honor."

"Better that you raise your voices."

"We shall do that as well."

In an instant the room was filled with the howling that had heralded their arrival, I covered my ears for the shrillness of it. Then they were gone, and I went to check on Liam, who, as I have previously related, was quite truly dead. I took my leave of the castle, and of the country several decades later, never having seen a Banshee again, though having heard their call on many following occasions.

**Well, I hoped you enjoyed our first look at the Banshees, stay tuned for more.**


	41. Chapter 41

Part 41

I walked Jessica home: I needed the trip to clear my mind so that I could try to make some sense out of what I had just learned. Another supernatural being had taken up residence in Bon Temps; not terribly surprising given the track record of the place, but not terribly convenient either. It seemed that the thing had killed Sam: the blood in his ears made me lean towards that possibility. But according to Jessica, it had keened for three days prior to the event. I wondered if it was trying to terrify him first, perhaps into providing whatever it was searching for, or if that was just the way these things worked. She had started her wailing again, this would have been night one. I wondered; if two and three followed, who was to be the next to shuffle off their mortal coil. A very uncomfortable feeling in my gut told me that it might be Sookie. But of course, it could just as easily have been myself; Sam's death orchestrated to draw one of us back to Bon Temps. A great many puzzle pieces lay before me, and I was getting some semblance of the hidden picture, but not nearly enough to act on yet.

Jessica provided me with several bottles of Tru Blood, which I took, needing the strength. I left her on her porch, still shaken, but feeling a little better for my presence I imagine. She had offered me her blood, but I had declined, there were so many reasons to say no, practical and impractical. She told me that Jason usually checked in on her before sunrise when he wasn't staying at the house that was, she was going to text him after she locked the door behind herself. She also said that she would call either Sookie, or myself should she think of, or discover anything else. I didn't know that she would. I didn't think she'd be going near Merlotte's again for a very long time, if ever. I made a mental note to inquire the next time we spoke, as to her finances. I had no idea what Bill had left her with and if it had been nothing then I was going to make certain that she had a proper job somewhere in my scope of organizations and a means to support herself. I would take over where Bill had once again failed if necessary.

I sat on the porch at Sookie's house for a few moments, moments that actually got away from me and became hours before I knew it. If I was to get to the bottom of this mystery I needed to know what the Banshee had spoken to Sam about in the days before his death. Since it seemed that no one but she and Sam had been in that office, I could think of only one way of sorting it out. It was going to involve witches, a thought that did not please me. But I fortunately knew of one who was what I would consider a white witch; at least one who had no ax to grind with me because of my other interactions with their kind. It was too late to call that evening, and since I needed to have the call made with some haste, I knew I would have to ask Sookie to do it, as soon as the hour was decent for a proper Southern Lady. I debated simply leaving her to sleep, she needed the rest, but decided that not only had I told her that I would give her my blood before the day came, but that simply leaving her a note, without explaining anything properly would add another stress to her overloaded mind just then. And when I was back close to her, and not engaged in other matters our bond began to become more evident to me once again. Even in her sleep her thoughts were unsettled, and they transposed to me just then, when I had nothing else to push them away with.

I re-entered the house and had a quick, warm shower so that when I crawled into bed beside my beauty for those last few minutes, that my cool skin would not startle her to wakefulness. I preferred to do that with my actions. I was able to move very carefully, and slipped in beside her so that I was facing her. My beauty had pulled a pillow close to her chest and was clutching it for whatever comforts it gave her. Her face was not peaceful and I could not help but reach out to caress her cheek, sharing her sadness right then, unable and unwilling to shut down the bond. I wanted her to feel the great love I felt for her then, the need to protect her from all hurt that had sat in my chest since the day I had met her. At my touch the tension in her eyes and jaw relaxed and I leaned in to kiss her. Her eyelids fluttered, I felt the subtle motion against my own and deepened my kiss.

"I am so sorry to wake you my beauty." I whispered, I wasn't completely sorry to do it, I had missed her, and I wanted her. I always wanted her. A soft smile grew on her lips.

"I missed you too Eric." It never failed to astound me how much she could pull from our bond, as if she really could read my mind. Her voice was beautifully lazy. She pushed the pillow from her arms and reached for me, I was only too happy to fold her into mine.

"Did you find out anything else?" She asked as I caressed her back, letting my hands wander down to her waist.

"I spoke with Jessica. She was very helpful."

"Tell me?"

I debated for a moment how much I should reveal to Sookie. Not that I wanted to lie to her, no good could come of that, but I didn't want to cause her more distress. She seemed to see it in my eyes, or perhaps read it from my thoughts.

"The truth Eric. I need the truth."

"Do you know what a Banshee is Sookie?"

"You mean like that old movie, Darby something or other and the little people?" I was not familiar with that particular movie so I expanded.

"A spirit woman, who wails to foretell death?"

"Yeah, that was it, with Leprechauns." She was so terribly adorable when she was still half asleep.

"They are a serious creature these Banshees." She sighed deeply; I could feel her pulling herself reluctantly to wakefulness.

"And let me guess, we have some in Bon Temps?" Her resigned tone was nearly heartbreaking.

"At least one Sookie. The red haired woman who went to see Sam? I believe she is one."

She sat herself up on her elbows to look at me a little more closely, sleep fading from her body.

"And what do we do about it Eric?"

"I need you to make a call for me." She nodded. "Do you remember my friend Papa B?"

"I do."

"I need you to call him, and ask him to speak with Octavia Fant. Now this is very important Sookie. I need her to do an ectoplasmic reconstruction for us."

"An ecto what what?"

"It is called an ectoplasmic reconstruction. Some witches, if they are very talented, as I know Octavia is, can pull on the energy left in a place and replay activities like a old silent movie for the living to watch."

"It sounds amazing, but where did you want to do this?"

"In Sam's office, I need to see what his meeting with the Banshee was about."

"You don't want to see who killed him?"

"I am quite certain it was the Banshee, or one of her kind. I need to see what she wanted from him that he was unwilling to give up to her."

"Why do you suspect he was holding something back from her?"

"She must have wanted something or she would have killed him on her first visit I expect." It was logical, and one of the things I had been considering on the porch.

"I am sorry that I am adding to the difficulty of your day my darling Sookie." I added, beginning to stroke her hair, as if that might somehow make things better. It was an honest gesture. She closed her eyes, seeming to appreciate my effort.

"I'll call as soon as I get up Eric. When do you need it done by?"

"Tell her that I will cover all her expenses and triple them if she can be in Bon Temps this evening."

"I'll ask."

"I appreciate that very much."

"Hey," She opened her eyes to look at me again in the half-light of her bedroom. "We're a team Eric."

"We are at that my beauty."

I felt her hands run down my chest and saw the smile on her face. I could deny her nothing at that moment, not my body or my blood. I went to my daytime sleep flush with the scents of her.


	42. Chapter 42

Part 42

I slept in the earthen hideaway in Sookie's house that day, were there a way I could have remained with her I would have done so. She slept past the sunrise, for which I was grateful. Even with my blood in her body she needed rest, and nourishment, and I elicited a promise before she slept again that she would eat properly that day; I knew it was going to be very difficult for her. Not only did she face the task of planning a funeral for her friend, a man I knew she loved in her way, but she was also tasked by me with contacting the witches again, beings who had thrown her life into chaos, whatever good had come of it in the end. It was not a minute past the sunset, a rosy hue still coming in the curtained windows when I sprang from the crypt to find her.

She was at the kitchen table, her hands wrapped around a mug of coffee, again the scent hit me before the sight of her, but any associated memories of it were pushed out of my conscious thought. It took nothing to understand that her day had been just as difficult as I had imagined it would be and I pulled her from the chair as gently as I could, sweeping the mug from her hand before it could spill and wrapped her in my arms, kissing her head over and over as I felt the moisture of her tears against my bare chest.

"My Beauty, my love," I cooed to her, "Talk to me." And she did.

It seemed that she had met Terry over at the funeral parlor, the only one in Bon Temps, just after breakfast. It had been obvious to her that he had been crying the entire night; his face was red, his eyes swollen, his hands shaking. She had pulled herself together to be a rock for him, because he needed her to be, as much as she felt like dissolving herself. Sam was not the kind of guy who wanted any kind of monument or anything. Given his druthers he'd have probably just asked to be left alone in death with no service or anything; at least that was what Terry and Sookie figured. But of course, funerals aren't for the dead, they're for the living, so they had decided on a cremation, and a wake, one last night at Merlotte's where everyone could get together and reminisce about Sam, and good memories, and get drunk. The wake was to be two nights hence, and the ashes, well, Terry had some kind of idea about a hunting spot he liked that Sam would have liked too, so he was going to take his ATV out with the urn and scatter things up there. Sookie related that she had wondered when that might be, and if Terry would be ready to give up the ashes before next spring. But she hadn't pressed him, because it really didn't matter.

The timing of the event had me concerned; that would be the third night of wailing for this Banshee if I had my assumptions correct. Being at Merlotte's might not be the safest venue because it seemed that someone was going to die. But at least I would be able to be there with Sookie, and I would invite Pam down as well, and with Jessica that would make three fairly powerful Vampires. If the Banshees still ran that way it would be an even fight.

I sat quietly and listened as Sookie outlined the arrangements for me. She intended to open the club that afternoon, give it a once over clean, and then set up the bar for everyone. It hadn't been that long it had been closed, but Terry was going to check the kegs and make certain everything was still working. He was also going to start a few pots of gumbo and some cornbread. Somehow Miss Fortenberry had gotten wind of the arrangements and had been more than eager to get the church ladies together to make some desserts and their 'specialties' for the evening. That woman seemed to be aware of everything going on in Bon Temps, at least the non-supernatural aspects of it. I began to wonder if she didn't have some kind of gossip radar of her own, but it had made Sookie feel better to hear from her, and I was willing to take her generosity at face value. Sookie had everything sorted it seemed, and had spent a great deal of time on the phone spreading the word. I was proud of her, I was always proud of her. She was so strong in the face of everything she'd had to endure. I let her talk till she got it all out of her system. Then she just looked up at me, wide-eyed, with her sad little smile.

"Thank you Eric."

"For what?"

"You just listened to me. You let me talk for the better part of an hour when I know you want to know if I got a hold of Octavia. But you put that aside for me."

I could only smile at her then.

"I did speak with her Eric." She looked at her watch. "She left New Orleans at about five, she said she needed that much time to put everything together."

"So she will here nearer to midnight then?"

"She said that Amelia would be driving so she thought they would make good time."

"Amelia?" I was stunned, though perhaps that isn't the correct word to express my dismay and displeasure at the impending presence of the girl who had helped to torture my darling. I had not forgotten that Octavia had taken the girl under her wing, but I had not anticipated that Octavia would bring her into my presence again. The fact that she seemed to have dismissed Sookie's feelings made me less receptive to the woman, as much as I wanted to respect her. "Are you going to be all right with Amelia being here Sookie?"

"If she can do anything to help figure out who killed Sam and why, then I will manage Eric."

"Why didn't you tell me this first Sookie, I would have stopped her."

"Because I will manage Eric. And I know you won't let anyone hurt me."

"I will snap her neck if she tries anything Sookie."

She nodded with that sad smile that had become such a fixture on her face these last few days. "What do we need to do in the meanwhile Eric?"

I never got to answer the question, as my cell phone rang, I had left it in the bedroom where the cubby was and so I retrieved it and returned to Sookie in the kitchen before the third ring.

"Northman." I answered the trill.

"Eric?"

It was Lafayette.

"Can we meet somewhere and talk?"

"You may come to Sookie's house." She looked at me oddly, not being able to hear who it was. I squeezed her hand to reassure her.

"Twenty minutes." And he hung up. It seemed we had our answer. Lafayette had thought of something else, or had decided to reveal something else. Whatever the motivation I looked forward to seeing him and hearing what he had to say.

Lafayette arrived almost exactly twenty minutes later, carrying a plate for Sookie.

"Terry mentioned that you looked like you hadn't been eating right." He told Sookie, looking over at me sideways. "So you put down some of this while we talk okay Sook?"

She took the offer graciously, and we sat around the table, her picking at the food slowly, probably so she didn't appear rude eating in front of us. Lafayette didn't wait for me to prompt him to talk, he began almost immediately, as if something had been sitting on his chest all night and day.

"Tara didn't kill Sam." He began, but we knew that already. His loyalty was being tested; I could see that in his face. I nodded. "Not that she didn't joke about it, or even threaten him in my presence when she'd had a few to drink. She was plenty pissed at him."

"Because of Holly?" I asked.

"Because of a lot of things Eric. I don't know what was up with Sam, but I think he got his self messed up in something dark, and I think that red-head was the one to start it."

"Go on."

"That night, that wasn't the first time she'd been by. She came a few weeks back. Asking a lot of questions, some about you and Sookie, at least to hear Tara tell it."

"Tara?" It seemed that this story was coming to me second hand.

"She was spying on Sam, still pissed at the way he'd dumped her for Holly, only I don't know that he'd really dumped her, 'cause I don't know that they'd been anything but friends with benefits, not that Tara saw it that way. You have to understand, she's just been looking for something to hold onto. Her whole life people have left her; for one reason or another. I guess she didn't understand Sam. I don't want to dump on her for being the way she is, but she did follow him, and heard Sam talking to this woman outside his trailer. She wanted to know where Sookie was, and where you were, and Sam wasn't giving up any information."

"When did she tell you this?"

"Last night, after you left. She was so mixed up; ashamed, angry, entitled. I thought you should know Eric. I have a bad feeling it means something, I just don't know what." He sounded scared, and remorseful, and a myriad of other things as he spoke. I wondered if he thought that I was going to hurt him or his cousin for holding this back. But I had to give him credit for not shying away from me as he said it. I could hear his heartbeat racing in his chest and I could see the way his hands were trembling. Yes, some credit to him for that.

"Thank you Lafayette, I will not forget what you've done for us tonight." I chose not to elaborate on what his information had given me. I would bring Sookie into my confidence when he had left.

"You aren't going to get Tara involved in this are you Eric?"

"If you decide to come to the wake tomorrow evening at Merlotte's I would suggest that you take your leave earlier rather than later." I put my hand on his shoulder, felt him start at my cold touch, and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "In fact, I insist on it." The fewer people as midnight approached, the better.


	43. Chapter 43

Part 43

I could feel Sookie closing her mind off, not to me, not intentionally, it was the way she steeled herself against the impending stress of going to Merlotte's and seeing Amelia again. I admired her for what she was able to do. I had to admit that I was getting to the point of wanting to rip something, or someone to shreds just to dispel the energy that was building under my skin. I focused myself on keeping my own mind calm, for Sookie's sake because we already knew that we could affect each other's moods when we let emotions run amok, and that wasn't always a good thing. She walked around her house, wooden, for a half an hour, tidying things, washing up her dishes, pulling at strands of her hair until I finally stopped her.

"Come on, let's go out there now. We can look around until they arrive, I can help you start setting up for tomorrow." I offered my hand. The look she gave me was beyond thanks, she had the same look as when she had first awoken in my office; this generous trust she seemed to have in me. I swept her into my arms and kissed her quite soundly, feeling her heartbeat against my chest, taking the time to smell her hair and linger with my fingers laced through it.

"Thank you," she whispered, and let me take her out to the car.

She turned on all the lights at the bar as we arrived and took a walk around slowly, quietly, looking at everything as if she had never seen it before, committing it to memory. I followed along behind her, trying to see what she saw, looking for anything that seemed supernatural or out of place, or just anything. But she didn't really pause anywhere, and it was easy to see that she couldn't pull any more out of the location than I had been able to. Perhaps there really wasn't anything else mortal and immortal eyes could pull out of it, not without help. Once she had convinced herself of that, she busied herself washing the glassware behind the bar. The nervous energy coming off her was almost palpable. I sat on the other side of the counter after reorganizing the tables to create a buffet of sorts, and just watched her move; it was so different than seeing her at Fangtasia. She didn't have the spring in her step or the smile on her face. She was just holding it together, and it was obvious.

"So you said it's going to be like watching a movie?" Besides the directions about the tables, they were the first words she had spoken to me since we had arrived.

"A silent movie."

"But how will we know what they are saying?"

"I can read lips." I said with a grin.

"Why am I not surprised Eric?" The first true smile she had worn in days graced her face.

"Well, I have had a thousand years to pick things up."

"Is there nothing you can't do Eric?"

"Given enough time together I'm sure we can find something, then you can teach it to me." I leaned over the bar to kiss her again. I felt her settle a little against me finally.

"Could you bring in some new beer kegs from the back of the kitchen for me?"

"Of course my Beauty."

I brought in one of each as Sookie asked, and since it wasn't that difficult to hook them up I did that as well. It wasted a little more time. And it wasn't long before we heard the crunching of tires on the gravel outside. The relaxed nature of my darling was suddenly lost and I could tell that she was sending her mind out to verify the identities of our 'guests'.

"It's them." She told me in a hushed voice.

"Good," I looked at my watch, it was only 11:00 pm. Apparently Amelia did drive quickly. "Wait here, let me go and greet them."

The civic had parked at the front of the bar, so I unlocked those doors and walked down the few steps. The passenger door opened and I went to that side to offer my assistance to Octavia as she swung her legs out, clutching a large tapestry carpetbag.

"Miss Fant." I greeted her.

"Why Eric," She put out her wrinkled hand and cradled my cheek as I leaned down to her, "How lovely to see you again." I helped her to stand and took her bag, offering her my arm to hold.

"Thank you so much for coming so quickly."

"My dear boy, anything to help you and Sookie. You're such a lovely young couple, and I am a softy for such things." It was hard not to see anything but absolute sincerity in the woman, even if she did insist on addressing me as younger than her; it was still charming. She straightened out her skirts. "Come out Amelia. Mr. Northman isn't going to kill you."

I had known Amelia was there; I had just ignored her. She hadn't budged.

"Girl, get out of the car, we have work to do." Octavia's voice commanded without even changing tones. My admiration grew even further.

Slowly I watched the driver's door open, but the woman who stepped out wasn't much like the one I had last seen at Fangtasia. Gone were the cloak, and the black gloves, and all of the self-assuredness of our last meeting. She was in jeans, a red jacket with the hint of a lace top underneath and, as she stepped around the car I could see, running shoes. Her hair was drawn back in an efficient ponytail, much like Sookie had used to wear. She looked every bit the student, and seemed properly afraid of me.

"Hello Mr. Northman." She mostly whispered at me, not meeting my eyes.

"Amelia."

"You see, I told you Amelia, Mr. Northman is a gentleman." Octavia looked over at me with a smile. Her facial features never faltered as she said it. Her confidence in me was, encouraging. "Will you get everything else from the trunk please and meet us inside." Tugging on my arm she turned me towards Merlotte's. I was only too happy to guide her.

Inside Sookie greeted her at the door, receiving the same embrace as I had. If I hadn't known better, and I suppose I really didn't, I would have sworn she was trying to read us the way Sookie did when she touched someone, enhancing her natural talents.

"Oh little one, so good to see you again. I'm so sorry about your loss." She patted Sookie's cheek. "Let's see if we can't get some answers for you."

Sookie wiped a tear from her eye. "Let me show you the office Octavia." Her voice wavered. The two of them went around to the back of the bar; I waited for Amelia to enter. She hefted in another duffle bag, looking straight at me as she came in the door; noting that she was alone with me.

"Are you afraid of me Amelia?"

"Yes." She looked down at the floor.

"Good." I turned around, "They're in the back, follow me." She did, with hesitant steps that made me smile.

We left Octavia and Amelia alone for the few minutes the older one told us she needed. I took Sookie outside and we sat on the steps, looking up at the stars.

"Have they changed much in all your time Eric?"

I shook my head, "not really."

"Everything sort of goes on without us doesn't it? I mean people live and die and the earth and the stars stay the same."

"No, it isn't the same Sookie. Every person leaves an imprint on this world, and changes its direction somehow."

"Do you believe that, really, Eric?"

"I have seen it."

She let her head rest against my shoulder.

"I suppose you have."

"We will find an answer Sookie, so Sam can rest in peace, and so that you can find your peace as well. And because you remember him, and Terry remembers him, and all those people who are going to come here tomorrow night remember him, he remains. That was the way of my people, and it is the truth."

She sighed very deeply.

"She's coming."

Amelia appeared in the doorway.

"Octavia says to tell you that she's ready."

"Come then Sookie. Let us find a few more answers."

Sam's office was not large so Sookie tucked herself into a corner, Amelia slipped in beside her and I watched Sookie stiffen. Octavia was closer to the door, weaving her spell, and I, well I moved around like a cat, not because I was nervous, but because I was waiting for the action, and needing to position myself to see both their faces, assuming there were only going to be two of them in the room.

"You are ready young man?"

"I am Miss Fant."

And she began.

An image of Sam behind the desk materialized in a growing curl of smoke. I heard Sookie gasp, even though it was under her breath. I could feel the sorrow flowing off her as a crack appeared in her wall. I stood to his side and watched as the second entity appeared through the door. Of course she didn't open it, the only thing these reconstructions brought to 'life' were the humans, or beings that had left their energy signatures behind. I recognized her immediately. I had never known her name, an error on my part, but it was the same red haired Banshee I had met in Ireland. I began to translate for the others, committing the words and actions to my memory.

"Have you had a chance to rethink my offer Mr. Merlotte?" The Sam entity looked up at her.

"Haven't wasted much time. The answer is still no."

"Why do you stand by her and the Vampire? She has abandoned you for him?" Sookie moaned as I repeated Sam's words, but I dared not look at her, I had one chance to see this; there was no instant replay on these things.

"I will not lure her here, or him."

The spectral Banshee pounded her fists on Sam's desk, but there was no sound to accompany the movement, that in itself was eerie.

"Get out of my office."

"I will do this with or without you Sam Merlotte. There are many ways to lure prey."

"Prey? I will not be part of whatever sick vengeance you are seeking."

"Vengeance? Not vengeance, a preemptive strike to save the ones I love. Would you not do the same?"

Sam remained silent; well, more silent because of course he wasn't actually speaking out loud. It was my voice that gave him that last chance to testify. He looked into the eyes of the woman before him, expression wavering, mouth quivering, not that anyone else could see the turmoil the man was expressing in that minute gesture.

"She is my friend, I will not betray my friend." Sookie sobbed out loud.

"Three days shifter, three days, will you betray everyone else, your own two-natured kin for an abomination and a night walker?"

"Get out."


	44. Chapter 44

The confrontation draws closer, I hope you all enjoy this interlude. Please let me know what you think.

Reviews are love.

Merick

Part 44

"That was awesome." Amelia's eyes were wide as the specters disapparated before us. Sookie was wiping tears from her eyes as she fled to my side leaving Amelia behind, a horrible look on her face, which Amelia couldn't fail to see.

"Oh, god, I didn't mean it that way Sookie." She backpedalled, seeing the glare from my eyes as I folded Sookie into my arms, trying to comfort her sobbing. "I meant the reconstruction, I've never seen one before, I didn't mean anything about your friend, I promise." She looked honestly terrified; I appreciated that.

"Hold your tongue Amelia or I will rip it from your throat." I hissed, pulling Sookie out of the room and into the silent bar, leaving Octavia to scold the junior witch, and order her to clean up the supplies. Fortunately both left Sookie and I alone for a few moments, enough for me to try to transpose some semblance of calm over her when my own mind threatened instability.

"She killed him." I heard her muffled words even as her face was pressed into my chest.

"Yes." I conceded, trying not to inflame her hurt.

"Because he wouldn't lure us out here."

"And she killed him to accomplish the same end." I finished her thought. That reality, I knew, was going to tear at my Beauty.

"Why Eric?" She sobbed.

"Something to do with us Sookie. She wanted you and I here, to punish us for something."

"What have we done to her?"

"I could see why she might want me, but I don't understand why her interest would swing to you. It sounded like it was something we had yet to do. Preemptive was the word she used." I shook my head. The frustration was welling in me again.

"You know her?" Sookie looked at me strangely, not accusing me, but hunting for information. I sensed no doubt from her; her unwavering faith in me humbled me.

"I've met her, once, over a century ago. We parted with a brittle detent between us."

"And she is the Banshee?"

"Yes."

As if she had been listening in to our conversation, and perhaps she had been, the same high pitched wailing split the quiet night, just as it had the evening before with Jessica. My darling covered her ears and sank to her knees. I tore out of Merlotte's teeth bared, a hiss on my lips, searching at my preternatural speed for the source of the sound. I pushed the brush and branches out of my way; their cracking hardly registering as I felt the blood begin to pool in my own ears at the shrill sound. It stopped just as suddenly as it had started, replaced by a hideous laughter that seemed to encircle me. I spun, searching, seeing only a glimpse of the red hair, frustration growing.

"Come out and face me Bitch!" I called into the night. "You will not have her, you will not have either of us!" A sing-songy voice replied.

"Earthly dust from off thee shaken, Soul immortal shalt thou awaken, With thy last dim journey taken, Home through the night." There was a pause as the note faded into the darkness, and then. "I shall see you die Night walker, you and your abomination." Then there was nothing. I roared in anger.

"Eric?" Sookie's voice called to me, from the distance and her mind pulled with concern. Knowing that I would never catch the Banshee I returned to her. She and Octavia were standing on the steps of Merlotte's, Sookie with her arms wrapped around her torso, Octavia with a hand on her arm, both of them looking out into the dark after me.

"I am here Sookie." I stepped from the growth at the edge of the lot, uncurling my fists.

"Oh thank god." She rushed into my arms. "I thought that the thing had attacked you."

No such luck, I thought to myself. I truly wished that she had, then I could have vented my fury on her. (Is that irony, venting fury on a Banshee, probably not.)

"Let's go back inside ladies." I guided them back into the bar, wanting to leave the open space of the outdoors behind us, not that I expected an attack just then, but inside the building was a more easily defended position if one was to come.

We sat at one of the larger tables, Octavia, Amelia and myself while Sookie made coffee. She needed to be busy, and she needed to be away from Amelia. But she was still listening as we spoke.

"She has threatened you both, perhaps leaving Bon Temps would be prudent Eric?"

"I will not run from her." I told Octavia.

"She'll only kill someone else," Sookie whispered, "I won't have more deaths on my soul. There have been enough." She brought over two mugs of coffee, one for Octavia and one for Amelia, the latter whispering her own thank you, keeping her eyes focused on the table top. I took Sookie's now empty hand, her fingers were warm from the brew; she sat between Octavia and I.

"Something we are going to do?" I mused out loud. "I don't suppose you have a precognition spell?" I asked Octavia.

"I am so sorry, I don't."

"And you Amelia?" Sookie finally made eye contact with the girl, I was so proud of her, even with the glaze of tears in her eyes. "Can you do anything?"

"I really wish I could Sookie, just to make up for everything I've done to you. But looking into the future is not something I can manage, I'm not a seer, I'm barely a witch. I'm so sorry."

"We wouldn't even know where to begin looking Sookie. We don't even know if what she is saying is true; or rather, the truth. She may blame us for something that we have nothing to do with." I tried to reason things out, to allay the guilt I could feel in her mind.

"But why did she need to bring us here? Why Bon Temps, why kill Sam to get us here?"

"That question I can perhaps answer." Octavia patted Sookie's hand, looking just a little brighter. "I believe that Bon Temps has a portal in it, a doorway between worlds. That's what makes the magic here so effective. I have felt something since we drove into town."

"A portal?" I asked.

"Indeed Eric, there is something in this place, something I am certain you yourself have sensed. Drawing out memories of your own, ghosts and reminiscences, pulling the supernatural here?" She looked at Sookie, her eyes piercing into her face. "And you yourself child, you are a part of this magic. Magic that can give you your hearts desire or destroy you."

She knew Sookie was fairy, she wouldn't say it out loud because I doubt Amelia had any idea and I could see that Octavia had no intention of exposing Sookie.

"Amelia, take my things out to the car and wait for me there." But it seemed that she did have more to say, beyond the ears of her apprentice.

We were all quiet as Amelia gathered up everything and left us.

"It may be as you say Eric, that this thing will hunt you no matter where you go. But there is perhaps something else I can give you to think about."

"Yes?"

"A Banshee is simply another type of spirit, part of the Faerie folk, like elves and brownies, even goblins." Octavia wasn't looking at me as she spoke; she was looking directly at Sookie. "Perhaps the source of her anger comes from that."

Sookie went a little pale, but the point was not lost on either of us. And Octavia had given me an excellent idea about how to proceed. She stood, a little shaky on her legs; I suppose those types of rituals could take a lot out of a body, and Octavia was far from young. I came to her side and offered her my arm again. She patted it in a grandmotherly type of fashion and smiled at me with wrinkled lips.

"I wish there was something else I could do for you children. I could offer a ward, but I don't know that it would work against a Banshee. I've never met one before."

"You've given us so much already Miss Fant, thank you." I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a folded clutch of bills. I pressed it into her opposite hand. "I trust this is enough for your expenses, but you must tell me if it isn't."

"It is all well Eric." She tucked it into her carpetbag without even looking at it. She smiled at Sookie, who had also stood. "Bless you both."

I helped her out to the car as Sookie tidied the one table we had used. I imagined she would have everything washed by the time I returned. And I did have a few calls to make; the first one being to Pam. She agreed to retrieve the things I required, and bring them to the wake. The second call was to Jessica, who had intended to be there as well, and after a little reassurance from me, and possibly from the male voice I heard in the background, she was buoyed enough to stand at my side when the time came. I expected Jason would be there as well; was that I wise thought on his part? I didn't know, the Banshee hadn't mentioned him, but it did not mean that she didn't see him as the same type of abomination as my darling Sookie.


	45. Chapter 45

And one more quick scene before the confrontation of Supe vs Banshee. I wonder who is going to show up for the party? Stayed tuned, and send me your guesses.

Merick

Part 45

Sookie was quiet for the entire ride back to her home, I hadn't expected her to offer anything out loud, I could feel the thoughts racing around in her head. The hurt of being called an abomination, hearkening back to the teasing that had known no real source except the barely concealed outbursts of a child who could see into people's heads, not knowing society didn't want to hear about it out loud. It throbbed within her like a migraine. When her eyes were opened, she stared ahead blankly, but mostly they were closed, her head hanging limply from her shoulders as if she had already been defeated. Of course there was sorrow, the pointless loss of her friend, all as part of some vengeful spirit's insane game, and there was fear. And when that surfaced I reached over to take her hand and hold it.

"I will not let any harm come to you Sookie. I promise you that." She did not answer me.

She walked like an automaton into the old house, and sat herself heavily on the couch. I checked over all the doors and windows again; just to assure myself that there was nothing sinister newly arisen, and then I sat with her.

"Octavia has told us some helpful things Sookie. Please, do not believe that we are without any resources."

"Tell me about her, the Banshee. Tell me what happened between you?"

I did not get the impression she was questioning whether or not I had slept with the thing, but if I had somehow offended her. Not that there was an ounce of blame in Sookie's voice, there never was. I told her the story of Liam, and of the happenings in Ireland all those years back. She listened thoughtfully, nodding every so often.

"And she wasn't able to hurt you?"

"She was exhausted by her one burst of power, now it has been many decades since then, and it is reasonable to assume that, like me, her power has grown. But back then I didn't know that she was a type of Fairy. And I certainly know how to deal with fairies Sookie."

"How?"

"Iron, and lemons. It's an odd thing, but both will kill. And we will certainly have iron at our meeting tomorrow. I have seen to that. And do not forget Sookie, you have powers of your own. Do you remember what you were able to do to Bill, back at Fangtasia?"

"The lights, from my hands?"

"Yes."

"But I don't know how to control them."

"They came when you felt threatened. Perhaps they will surface again if you should have need?" I offered.

She nodded again, seeming just a little more confident then.

"We will not be alone Sookie. We have Pam, and we have Jessica. Some of the Were's may even show up."

"You have spoken with them?"

"Not the Weres, but word does have a way of getting around in the two natured community. They may come to pay respects to Sam, and if they do it will not take much to enlist their help against his killer."

"She cannot fight us all at once can she?"

"I do not believe so, not from what I have seen."

"What if she brings friends?"

"Then we will have more targets my beauty." And I pulled her into my arms, finally feeling as if it would be all right to do so. The tension had gone out of her shoulders, and as I kneaded my hands gently against her back she did relax into me.

"Can I do anything else to help you relax Sookie?"

"Come to bed with me Eric." She whispered. And I knew exactly what she meant.

Again I let her lead, I was glad to do so. She said nothing as she undressed me, and I lay back onto the bed as she similarly disrobed. She used her hands, touching every part of my skin, her eyes closed for most of her exploration. It seemed as if she was committing everything to memory, as if she was afraid that it might be the last time; I could feel it coming through our bond, as hard as she tried to hide it from me. In truth I didn't need the bond to know what she was feeling. Her closed lids were rimmed with tears, ones that glistened in the low light of her bedroom. I made no move to brush them away, for even though I know they were there to convey sadness they made her look even more enchanting, more like the fairy that I knew rested in her genes. I simply whispered 'I love you' to her, and watched the diamonds slip down her cheeks.

Her fingers stroked my face, receiving kisses from my lips as she rocked herself over my hips. She was beautiful, never more so than when she was naked, with me, absorbed only in us as she was just then. It would not have mattered to me a whit if she had done nothing else but sway there atop me, it would have been enough, but she brought me to her body and took me into her with such grace and care that I could not help but arch for her, and close my own eyes and moan with the overwhelming joy of it all.

She took me slowly; rocking against me in a dance whose music was shared between us. I let my hands rest on her hips, but did nothing further to guide her. I watched her chest rise and fall in staccato silent sobs, her hands resting on my chest, trembling. I moved my hands to cover them and began to thrust my hips against her.

"I love you Sookie." I whispered again and then I came for her. Tears ran down her cheeks and she collapsed onto me, my body still engulfed in hers and I held her as she sobbed.

I had asked her not to go out without me the following day, but I knew that she had to, she needed to have things perfect for Sam, and I knew if she didn't go out to Merlotte's that she would spend the day building herself into a complete frenzy, so once she fell asleep I made one of the hardest calls I had ever had to make. I called Alcide Herveaux, and I asked him to come to Bon Temps, and to stay with her for the entire day, to watch her and keep her safe when I could not. I had woken him from his slumber, I could certainly tell that much, but he calmed himself quickly after he understood who was calling and why.

I knew the Banshee could come for her during the daylight hours, and I shared everything I knew with Alcide, and everything I planned to do. For her I took him into my confidence, perhaps that was the hardest thing. It was not that I was at all worried that her heart would stray to his, but I hated that I failed her in this regard. Every word stuck in my throat as I spoke them; but I must give Herveaux credit for agreeing to attend to her, without even bargaining for anything in the process. He was a gentleman, and an honorable one. It gave me comfort that he said he would rise immediately and begin his drive down so as to be there for her as soon as he could. I didn't know if he would make it before I was forced into my earthen prison, I rather doubted it, but I knew that any threat to Sookie would make me rise without hesitation to defend her. As I went back to her bed she woke and I asked her to wait for Alcide, before she left and she promised me she would, kissing me again on the mouth. I would have made love to her again right then, but for the fact that I could feel the fatigue rolling off her in waves. I contented myself in the kisses, and then left her to sleep again. I needed to move, to walk, to run, to fly, and so I did, round and about her home, tearing through the woods like a madman, listening for any sounds out of place, any scent or thing that would lead me prematurely to my enemy. It was not forthcoming and so I moved myself into sheer exhaustion like Sookie, checking in on her once more as the pink began to fill the sky, before the earth took me.

Mr. Cataliades would also be in Bon Temps after sunrise, I had called him as well, and he also had answered, but of course, I didn't actually know if demons needed to sleep so it had likely not been as great an interruption as Herveaux's call. I had told Alcide to expect him; he would be leaving things for me, and he was not unfamiliar to Sookie. For as fast as Pam could travel, she could not bring the implements I wanted in my hands as soon as the sun set. And when I did rise, hardly feeling rested; they were there, the leather wrapped parcels, lying just at the door to my crypt, my black suit laid out on the guest bed with a crisp white shirt and polished shoes. Otherwise the house was empty, as silent as the grave I had risen from, and while that silence did not usually bother me, just then it made my cold heart feel even more frozen. I looked over the parcel carefully. It had been a great deal of time since I had held that particular item in my hands. The blade was not so sharp as it once had been, but a cutting edge was not what I desired. I washed, dressed and took up what I needed and made my way to Merlotte's as the final glow of the day disappeared behind the treetops. It was time.


	46. Chapter 46

Part 46

I was the first Vampire to arrive at Merlotte's; I had expected that. Most eyes turned to me as I entered, through the front door, my leather bundle slung anachronistically across a hand tailored black suit shoulder. My eyes sought out only one person, Sookie, who was not in the main room, though Alcide was, behind the bar, speaking with Sookie's brother Jason. I went for him, ignoring everyone else, walking around the counter, nodding at the wolf, putting my parcel under the shelf, then standing to talk. My journey over had not taken long, but I had searched my bond with Sookie for any sign of distress, and I had found none, at least no more than I had expected to find.

"Has she been well today Alcide?" His expression on seeing me was tight lipped, not in an angry way but in a determined one, I suppose it was a look I had worn myself at times. It was that of a soldier.

"She has." His reply was short.

"Nothing untoward?"

"Unless you count Maxine Fortenberry," Alcide nodded his head towards a large woman, holding court over at one of the tables I had moved around on the previous night. "Strange woman that one." He continued, "Has insisted on expressing her condolences to Sookie a good half dozen times and asking very leading questions about what she thinks might have happened to Sam."

"Do you think she knows something?" I stared at the woman, not really caring what she thought about me in return, I was beyond the niceties of social interaction for appearances' sake. If she had anything I could use, I would take it from her. She glanced up at me, shuddered, and averted her eyes, beginning her whispering anew.

"No, I don't think she knows anything, but I think she wants to, in a busybody sort of way." Alcide's assessment seemed sound. I nodded, understanding completely, without even having to listen in on the conversation she was directing. She was harmless.

"And where is Sookie?"

"Just went back to the office for a moment. She said that you were coming." He looked at me with narrowed eyes, "How did she know that Eric?"

I had no desire to share the intricacies of our bond with Alcide, so I simply replied, 'the sunset' and went to find her. It had been hard enough to ask for his help in the first place, I was not about to reveal anything more than was necessary. I was not used to sharing myself with anyone, besides Pam, and of course Sookie, and I was not altogether comfortable with doing so. I paused outside the door, remembering all that was within. I could hear her pacing, like a caged animal, held by her own will and not bars and as I opened the door she turned to me and flew into my open arms. It felt as though we had been apart for weeks, not just hours and I held her to my chest, stroking her hair.

"I have missed you my Beauty."

"I missed you too Eric." She whispered.

It was glorious just to hold her in silence for those few moments, to smell her hair and the lavender shampoo she had used, and the perfume of her body, a scent that continues to enthrall me, no matter how accustomed I have become to its presence around me.

"Alcide was a great help today, thank you Eric for sending him." She leaned back from my embrace to look into my eyes, finally wearing a smile, albeit a small one. It was no less charming.

"I would never leave you alone Sookie. I would have been with you if there had been any way, you know that."

"I do Eric. It doesn't matter, it was a very quiet day." She released some of the tension she had been holding in her shoulders and allowed me to lead her to sit in the office chair as I leaned on the desk near to her. For a moment a respite of calm reigned over the small office, and it could have been quite a normal evening, but for what we both knew was coming.

"Tell me what you did?" I wanted to assure myself that she was not hiding distress from me, thinking that it might draw away my focus from the task to come.

"Nothing really. I had breakfast, I got dressed, Alcide arrived at about nine. I was surprised to see him, but he explained everything. We had a chance to talk for a bit and then we came over here and started setting up. Terry came about four, and he and Alcide got the bar set up. I guess they needed to replace the kegs and check the lines for the mix." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled with the memory. "Alcide was pretty good at it, like he'd done it before, and it was great not having to worry about Terry stumbling through it all." She sighed, "He is still so upset Eric, he hardly seems to know how to put one foot in front of the other."

"And you Sookie?" Perhaps it was selfish, me not exactly caring how Terry Bellefleur was managing, even though he was important to Sookie. I am a selfish creature then, or perhaps just a focused one.

"I'm sad, I'm scared, I'm trying to hold it together Eric, I have to, for everyone else here, and for you." She pursed her lips together.

"Not for me Sookie. Never for me. It will be over soon."

"Please don't say that Eric. It frightens me."

I pulled her up from the chair and back into my arms. I had not meant to imply anything sinister, only that the wake would be over in a few hours, hopefully with the outcome I had planned for, and then her responsibilities to Bon Temps would finally be at an end. Or at least I hoped they would have been. But of course, my words had an altogether different meaning for her, and my apology was feeble, with a kiss and a whispered 'I'm sorry, that isn't what I meant.'

I heard a bit of a noise from the bar just then, and so my attempts to make amends were cut short. Taking Sookie by the hand I returned to the public space, I did not expect that it was the Banshee so soon; it was too quiet for that. It was just a generalized movement of bodies in the bar, and collective emotions. I had not taken a great deal of time to survey the place as I had entered, I had been so concerned with seeing Sookie again and establishing her well being that I had neglected that, but it became quickly apparent to me what had happened, both by my own visualizations, and the sudden sense in my head of my child. Pam and Jessica had arrived.

If my own arrival had done little to stir the crowds, the same could not be said for Pam and Jessica. Perhaps not so much Jessica as Pam. My child was dressed all in black leather, with the same plastic, disdainful smile she reserved for all large groups of humans, be they at Fangtasia or anywhere else she was forced to attend. The color choice was about the only thing that lent itself to the funereal aspect of the evening. The rest was more downtown Harley Davidson than Spenser Funeral Parlor; but she did look awfully good in it, and I could see a few human men turn their eyes as she strode across the room to me. A good many people began to pack up at that point, now that there were three Vampires in the room. It struck me as rather ironic, that we were the force to scare them away when they were taking their drinks from a werewolf, and feting the life of a shapeshifter; at least we were what we looked like, no hiding our aspect.

As the mundane folk of Bon Temps made their way out of the bar in a slow stream, attempting to not look nearly as obvious as they did look, fleeing the monsters, I had a chance to finally survey the hardiest of the group. Jason had moved to sit at a table with some of his friends. I recognized Hoyt, from the descriptions that had been given to me, and of course I saw Lafayette, well into his liquor, I did not stop to examine which kind. I had more important things to attend to. I greeted Pam and Jessica, the latter of which, I noticed, was not looking at either Jason or Hoyt, she was looking directly at me. Her jaw clenched as if to keep her from uttering something she desperately didn't want to. I did not have time to concern myself with her social life just then.

"Pam?" I didn't even have to finish my question; she knew immediately what I needed. She pulled a chain from the pocket of her leather jacket, and handed it over to me. I let the pendant on the end of it fall to swinging as I showed it to Sookie. It was not a fine piece of jewelry, but on short notice it was functional if not aesthetically pleasing. An iron cross, I hung it over Sookie's neck.

"It will help keep them away from you." I told her as I turned back to Pam, I had not meant to be dismissive of her, but I still needed to know if Pam had brought the other items I had asked for.

"Yes Eric, we both have the daggers." I didn't ask where they had hidden them; I did not want to know. I had told Pam to ensure she brought iron blades for herself and Jessica to wield. I had my sword, previously delivered by Mr. Cataliadies, hidden away. We were as prepared as we were going to be, and all that remained to do was wait. Wait and watch the humans get drunk.

I kept Sookie in my sights for the next few hours, not in a stalker sort of way, but as a means to an end. I did not know when the Banshee was going to reappear, though I suspected it would be at midnight, as she had the two nights before, but I was taking no chances. People came and went, some came and stayed for a while and then went, and others just got more and more drunk as the minutes passed. I sipped on a Tru Blood, and memorized the location of every object in the bar.

I remember being drunk, it wasn't on fine wine, it was more beer and ethanol spirits, not that we knew that's what they were called back then, back when I was human. I remember the momentary freedom the alcohol gave you; it made you stronger, more courageous, more foolhardy, it made you the hero, at least in your own mind. It was for celebrations, and though it often caused fighting, it never caused tears, not that I could remember. That night it brought an abundance of them. I could see what Sookie had meant by needing to stay strong, especially as Terry fell apart.

Andy had come, but he had no idea how to deal with his cousin. I would have felt for his predicament, but I had other, far more pressing things to concern me then. He steered a wide berth around the crumbling man, which left Sookie and Lafayette to keep him together, though Lafayette was slowing down as well. His eyes were darting about between Sookie, his cousin Tara (who had been ignoring me, much to my happiness), Terry and myself, though the alcohol he had imbibed also found them glancing at Alcide, still behind the bar, still looking his alpha self. The time was growing short and I had had enough, I slid over to Lafayette and whispered to him,

"He really isn't your type."

"Everyone is my type, given the right motivation." He whispered back, some of the words slurring as he spoke them. I didn't begrudge him the eye candy or the alcohol. At least he could get drunk and forget his world for a night.

"I think it might be time for you to be going Lafayette." I encouraged him, not actually glamouring him just then, though my serious look was apparently just as good. He sighed, realizing that his only company that night was going to be his 'drunk-assed cousin' as he put it to me, and Terry Bellefleur. I had Andy take them all home. He had been looking for an excuse to leave. It wasn't hard to see that he felt that every eye looking at him was somehow blaming him for not solving the murder already. And of course I knew he never would. But I wasn't about to put any more deaths on his roll, and so I encouraged a few others to start finishing up their drinks with an eye to hitting the road.

"Alcide? You'd best be going to now. This isn't your fight."

"If it's all the same to you Eric, I'll stay." I was not about to chase off a good pair of hands, or in this case, teeth. Sookie encouraged her brother to leave, and he did, with Hoyt, but not without looking back at Jessica, who I knew wanted to be with him and not me just then. But she stayed behind. She helped Pam and Alcide clear away the tables, I wanted a clean fighting surface should it come to that, while I took Sookie into the kitchen for one last moment together before the end. I wanted her to have some of my blood in her system, perhaps as much for me as for the strength I knew it would give her. I wanted that physical connection; I wanted that part of me inside her. I wanted the brief euphoria of her mouth on me, and she gave it to me. Nothing was going to hurt her, even if it cost me my own life.

Now I was ready.

The bar was quiet, so when the howling came it was easy to hear, cutting across the black night, cutting into my marrow. Even Alcide bristled and I saw him clench his jaw and tighten his fists. I liked that he was ready to pounce, and I appreciated the loyalty he had to my Beloved. I came up from my position at the side of the bar to stand front and center, my Vampire child, and stepchild flanking me as the door burst open. She had brought company, just like the last time I had seen her, two other women, standing with her, in parallel to me. I heard Jessica hiss. The howling had stopped before she had come into the building, and her mouth's work had been replaced by a wicked smile that betrayed a great deal of confidence, whatever the truth of her situation was.

"We meet again Night walker, and again you have brought friends. Even the half-breed is here. Will you offer her to me in sacrifice so that I spare the rest of you?"

Alcide began to growl, I held my ground.

"I offer you nothing but the chance to walk away before I end your existence in all planes."

She laughed.

"You will not have her." I emphasized.

"I will have you all." She surveyed the room, not taking stock of the objects within as I had, but seeing the people, and judging them.

"Night walkers, a werewolf and the abomination, not much of an army to raise against me."

"I need no army."

"Are you certain of that?"

I could see Jessica in my peripheral vision, vibrating.

"You have no idea what powers you are up against." My voice did not tremble; I would not give her quarter.

"I have an excellent idea. And I see nothing to inspire fear." She countered.

"Then you are a fool."

"Give me the girl and I will leave the rest of you unharmed."

"Why do you want her?"

"The death of my friend is on her shoulders."

"I haven't killed anyone." Sookie cried out from behind me.

"Your simple being will cause her death, as sure as if you had pushed the blade through her chest yourself." An interesting analogy this Banshee had chosen, considering that was exactly the death I had in mind for her.

"So you're punishing me for something I haven't even done yet?"

"For me time is not linear as it is for mortals, what will happen, has happened, and the guilt remains."

"That isn't right!" Jessica called out, and the women whipped her head around to glare at her. "She's innocent!"

"None of you are innocent."

"Bitch, you are getting on my nerves." Pam finally spoke. I could see and feel that she was itching for a fight. Standing around, contemplating one for several hours had done nothing for her mood. Neither had being hit on by the liquid courage that had replaced the common sense of some of the former patrons of the celebration.

"If you will not give her to me, then I will take her."

"I'd like to see you try." Alcide put in his two cents as he stepped beside me, further shielding Sookie from any direct blow. I heard a growl then, but it had not come from Alcide, so I became confused, at least until the doors to the bar were filled with two further shadows, one I recognized, (I never forget a figure), and one I did not, but all wolves look the same to me. The Banshee spun, now startled at yet another pair of supernaturals.

"Amelia!" Sookie shouted. The girl waved back, as casually as if they had spotted each other across the mall. I began to wonder if the little witchlet was ever going to mature.

"Turn and go girl, and I may let you and your wolf escape unharmed." The Banshee warned, which only drew another growl from the roan wolf. He was obviously a Were just like Alcide. And I think my Were had placed him, he seemed to be making a deep eye contact, wrinkling his nose, which said to me that they were familiar with each other. With his own roar, and after he peeled off his shirt, Alcide shifted as well. And suddenly the room did not seem so big as it had.

"Oh hell no lady, you are not about to take my friend here."

It was a leap on Amelia's part, a big leap, but I appreciated the sentiment, and the extra targets. Three Banshees versus three vampires, two weres, a witch and a fairy; our odds were getting better by the moment. That was until the woman unleashed her voice.

I had known what to expect, it had been hurled at me before. Jessica had heard it, but not at full strength, so it brought her to her knees momentarily. Pam was older, it did not cripple her, but shook her up for a moment before she compensated for the annoyance and leapt at her target, the figure on my left, just as we had planned. The Weres were stunned for a little longer, their hearing, especially of the high-pitched harmonics that I knew were a part of the wail, is quite sensitive. Sookie and Amelia didn't suffer nearly as much as the rest of us, and I saw Amelia beginning some kind of incantation. From that point everything happened so quickly that it is hard for me to describe adequately, but I shall of course, endeavor to do it.

Pam's intended victim took the first blow from the iron dagger. Because they were not full fairies it did not have the immediate effect that iron usually did, but the blade itself tore a red gash that quieted the thing and sent her reeling. (Another effect of them not being full fairies was the fact that their blood was not so intoxicating as it spilled, thankfully.) With the decrease in screaming Alcide tore at that one as Pam stood off to the side. His powerful jaws had her throat in moments, black blood leaking around his teeth in thick rivulets. She was of no further concern as I advanced on my target, the primary one, the one that wanted to kill Sookie, and myself.

"Do you see, you wild bitch, that you cannot defeat me!" I intended to provoke her to complete, irrational anger so that she would be at her weakest for me. "I have the power over the future, and I control what you see!"

Her eyes were wild and while I could withstand the effects of her scream partially, she had grown stronger than the first time I had met her, and as Sookie could, she raised her palms to me, and generated some type of blast that threw me backwards, as I had planned, with enough force to hurl me over the bar. I heard Sookie scream, I tried to reassure her through our bond, but there was so much other noise from the wailing and the strain that I don't know if I got through. I had to trust that she would be safe for those few seconds. I heard the commotion of a second Were, I have come to know his name is Trey, a pack friend of Alcide's and a lover to Amelia. The sound of flesh tearing followed the roar. I rose from behind the bar, the ancient long sword in my hands, and I leapt at the Banshee, holding the blade above my head and swinging it downwards, using gravity and my own power to strengthen the flight. But she was fast.

The blow I had intended to bifurcate her, fell to her right, and though it severed a slab of flesh from her arm it did not stop her, or kill her. In fact it only enraged her. But of course rage often leads to carelessness. She lashed out at me again as I landed, flinging me backwards into the wall with a terrible thud and subsequent trembling of the edifice's foundation. Fortunately there was no oubliette for me to be flung into, unlike poor Liam. As I gathered my head about me I could see Jessica and Trey hacking at the second of her soldiers. She was obviously the older of the two; sadly the youngest had fallen to Pam, who, along with Alcide, had dispatched her quickly. Pam was making her way over to me, I would have preferred she attend to Sookie, but there wasn't time to order it. I looked for my target again as the stars faded from my mind and found her wheeling on Amelia who had obviously cast some sort of annoying spell. I did not know the substance of the thing, but it had bought me time, and for that I was grateful. I stood, retested my blade in my hands and went for her a second time.

Again I contacted, and again she was weakened by the blow, but again she flung me away. And that time she advanced on Sookie. I could hear my beauty scream. The Banshee's blow against me had not been as powerful as the first, and so I recovered myself much more quickly and sought her out, seeing her hands reaching hesitantly for Sookie; drained perhaps by the energy she had spent on me, or perhaps by the iron cross? I could feel fear in my Sookie, but something else, some little measure of defiance, a determination that she was not going to be a victim again; that she was not going to be punished again for something she had not done; whether it was her relationship with me, or the circumstances of her lineage. I watched as, in a move as fast as my own might have been, she drew two fists towards the Banshee and pushed them against her throat, lights flaring, and something else scattering, something yellow. I could not help but smile, even as I thrust my blade forward again. She had remembered the lemons, and she had crushed them against the Banshee's naked skin, searing the juices there with her lights. The howl of pain was nothing like the deathly wail, and I was only too happy to force my sword through her body. As she crumpled I checked on her last companion, now fully under the control of Trey and Jessica, her own life ebbing as well.

Satisfied, I grabbed up the Banshee by the raw skin of her neck and held her to my face.

"You have lost." I roared at her.

"I will not let her kill Claudine." She spat at me, trying to muster the energy to make her lights again, but I tightened my grip on her throat, cutting off what little air she could still choke down.

"Claudine?" I was astounded. Of course the name was not unknown to me, but how could Sookie kill her own fairy godmother? The Fairy was ancient by my reckoning, and cunning, and would not let herself be taken easily.

"How?" I would have the answers if they came on the bitch's last breath.

"There will be a war, they will come for her, Claudine will stand against them, she can do no less. She will die, her child will die in her womb, it has been foretold. I cannot lose her." Tears rolled down the withering face, the eyes fluttered, she was dying in my grasp, and though I felt a sudden spark of sympathy, it was no more than a spark. I let her go and she was ash before she hit the floor.

A new wailing arose from outside.


	47. Chapter 47

Well here we are, come to the end of this journey, started so very long ago it seems. I hope that the words have pleased you, and made you smile, and perhaps made your heart flutter once in a awhile.

It has been my honor,

Merick

Part 47

It was not the same, not the keening of the Banshee, striking terror and piercing the night like a jagged blade, it was a true, plaintive sorrow that cut to your heart and made you wish to weep, not even knowing the source. I kept my blade in my hand, taking no chances on another enemy, likewise bent on revenge for real or perceived transgressions. I tore through the doors, Pam directly behind me, leaving Sookie in Jessica's hands for the moment. But I knew my lover, and I knew she would follow me, and so I took the fore, prepared to again cut down anything that might threaten her.

The sight that met my eyes as they instantly adjusted to the darkness outside the bar from the incandescent glow within was not what I had expected. Another wolf, one familiar to me from the graveyard back in new Orleans, white, yellow eyes, curled around the crumpled form of a Fairy, a Fairy godmother, Claudine. She was sobbing, her milk white face hidden behind her long fingers, dark hair hanging in sheets over her shoulders in a most disheveled look for a creature who had previously looked so perfect. The noise of the doors thudding open brought her face up to meet mine. Tears had streaked it red, but it was still beautiful, in the way Fairy faces and bodies and blood are to all my kind. She tried to hiss at me, but it died on her lips in a choked sob.

"Claudine?"

"What have you done to her Northman?" She tried to straighten herself, the wolf acting as her strength just then. "There is so much fairy blood in the air, on you, on all of you?" Her eyes darted around to take us all in, because everyone was on the porch of the bar just then, looking at her. It must have been a very fearful sight, even knowing the power she could wield as a full-blood fairy; two Weres, a Witch, three Vampires, and Sookie, most all of us armed with iron implements of some sort. Her wolf began to growl, she brushed its head.

"The Banshee?" I asked, assuming it was who she meant, but not discounting the possibility that it was Sookie.

"Her Name was Geileis, Nightwalker, she was my friend and you have killed her!" Claudine's posture straightened as she found her strength, standing to face me, despite the sword that stood between us. I might not have liked her then, but I could respect her.

"Geileis, your friend came to kill Sookie." I answered her charge.

"She what?" Clearly that action had been unexpected on Claudine's part.

"She came to kill Sookie. She killed Sookie's friend Sam to lure her here."

"I don't understand." The anger began to ebb from Claudine's shoulders as I watched her slump forward again to rest against her wolf Daniel.

"Neither did I till just now."

"Tell me Northman, I need to understand." Her eyes pleaded with me, still rimmed with the red of her salt tears. She kept the wolf between us, but let me approach, after I handed my sword off to Pam that was. I could feel the grip of my child's hunger in her mind; but she was fighting off the urge to feed. Claudine had been correct, the whole of the air smelled of fairy blood, however dilute, and I was impressed with Pam, and even more so with Jessica for being able to control themselves.

"Geileis, she came to kill Sookie because she believed that Sookie would cause your death, yours and your child."

"My child?" shaking hands drifted to her belly, and she looked from it to me, and then to Sookie. "But, no one knows yet, not even the father. I have only just discovered it myself."

"Geileis saw into the future, she saw your pregnancy, and your death, in some kind of Fairy war."

"War?" Her eyebrows and forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"I don't understand it myself, and she gave us precious little information about it."

"It was her gift and her nature, to see into the future." Claudine spoke, but not really to any of us.

"She said that you would die protecting Sookie, and that if Sookie were already dead, that your life would be spared."

"Oh Geileis," she whispered, looking as though she might collapse again. It wasn't I that ran to her though, and I doubt she would have accepted my help anyways, seeing as I was covered in the blood of her friend. It was Sookie who approached, handing me the iron cross as she passed me, holding my hand for a just a second as she caught my eyes and then turned away.

"I doesn't have to be that way now does it?' She whispered to Claudine, the only one of us amongst the group who might not have heard her was Amelia. The wolf backed away respectfully, sensing no harm from my Beauty.

"I don't know Sookie."

"But now that you know, you just don't have to come here, to fight. If you stay in your land you'll be safe won't you?"

"I don't know that either."

"Sookie has enough people here to protect her Claudine." I stepped forward, even as the wolf growled at me; earning himself replies from Trey and Alcide. "Don't risk your life coming back here."

"But she is my charge, I have to watch over her."

"Not anymore, I will care for her now. You trusted me with that care when you pointed me towards the witch who had enchanted her. I take the task from you now. Go." I knew a little about the Fairies, at least about their declining population. My kind had hunted them, many of their kind had chosen human mates; the manner in which Sookie's line was conceived, and I did not doubt that those choices had led to the difficulties they were now facing, (difficulties that had in part, led to the simmering tensions and the war Geileis had intimated).

"Sister!" Came the command, preceded by only milliseconds with the pop of materialization. We all stared at the newcomer, another Fairy, and equally handsome to be certain. "You cannot be in this place, can you not smell the blood around you and see the Vampires who hunger for more?"

"She is dead Claude."

"Who is dead?" He seemed to take little concern at his sister's apparent misery as he took us in.

"Geileis."

Even the name did not provoke a greater response.

"Sister you must come away with me now." He looked at all of us, well able to hiss his displeasure. Not that any of us, except perhaps for Sookie and Amelia even flinched. Suddenly the smell of Fairy was even thicker in the air, and I did not know if Jessica and Pam could hold themselves back.

"What am I to do?" She moaned.

"Let something good come out of this Claudine." Sookie told her, "Our friends are lost, but we don't have to be too." She patted the Fairy's arm and I checked back on the ladies, who were holding their ground, albeit tremulously. "I have people to look after me here. Go back home, protect yourself and your child."

"Child?" Came the exclamation from Claude. "You are pregnant Sister?"

"She is Fairy." I stepped in, realizing an opportunity to finally end this. He looked at me, glaring as if he would just as soon roast and eat me, were it possible. "Take her back to Fae and keep her there. Sookie doesn't need her, you can tell your King that."

"I would be most pleased to do just that Vampire." He stepped to his sister and took her hand, pulling it backwards, away from Sookie and away from us. "Hello little cousin." He addressed Sookie.

"Hello?" She offered back, taking in the measure of him. He was beautiful, much in the same way as Claudine. Dark hair, perfect skin, the shade of fresh milk, almond shaped eyes that looked enticing and sexual without any effort on his part. But his mouth, drawn up in a half sneer spoke of his arrogance, and that tainted his beauty so much so that he was not so physically attractive as he could have been.

"Claudine, come home with me. It is not safe for you in this world, not with a child coming. You know that Grandfather would agree. The child is too important," and then finally he seemed to soften as he held her hand, "and so are you."

Then she seemed ready to let him lead her away. She looked at all of us, lingering on myself for a moment too long, not in anger, but pleading without a word that I care for Sookie as I had promised. I nodded to her. Then she gazed at Sookie, tears in her eyes.

"Do not blame Geileis for what she has done in taking your friend and trying to harm you. She did it out of love."

Love? I asked myself quietly. Over a premonition she had killed one man and sought to kill my Sookie, over a future that she could possibly have changed had only she chosen to share it with the right people? I held my tongue, as did Sookie. I knew she could not forgive Sam's death so easily.

The Fairies and their wolf stepped away, and with another crack splitting the night, they were gone from view, forever from this realm if I had any say in it. And then the whole world seemed quiet.

Sookie had a call from the lawyer handling Sam's estate early the following week. She had seemed shaken, but had taken the call none-the-less. I had not reasonably expected her to be over the mention of his absence yet, and so I was sympathetic as she recounted the conversation to me when I woke. While Sam had obviously not known how imminent his own death truly was, it seemed he had made some preparations at some point in the past. Those preparations had involved Sookie. Whatever his understanding of her feelings towards him, his towards her had been obvious in his bequest. He had left her part ownership of Merlotte's, a third, the other two going to Lafayette and Terry. Apparently he had left Arlene the rental home she was living in, so she had been quite pleased and not upset, to hear Sookie recount the lawyer's stories. I asked her what she intended to do with the place, half afraid that she might want to go back and run it, now that she had seen how such things were done at Fangtasia. But her ultimate answer did not surprise me.

"I gave it to Holly and the baby." A smile lit across my face before I could stop it. "I called Mr. Cataliades and asked him to draw up the paperwork. It's what Sam would have done if he had known that he was having a child." I could not help but pull her into my arms just then and embrace her, my heart filled with relief and happiness. We had not talked about her ultimate plans since we had returned from Bon Temps. My initial hopes that she would follow through and move in with me completely had been left to simmer, just so that I could contain the rage that I felt towards the beings who had interfered, dead as they were.

"You aren't upset at me are you Eric?" She mistook for silence for concern.

"Not at all," I stroked her hair, smelling the lilting fragrance of lavender again. "You have made a good choice Sookie. You do not need the headaches of running a bar, and you certainly do not need the money." I tried to laugh, and she curled herself into me again, her warmth coursing over my skin in a delicious shudder.

"I have sworn to take care of you, in all things and in all ways Sookie." I whispered as I leaned in to kiss the top of her head. "I take my responsibilities very seriously." Then she laughed.

"My bed will never be cold then?"

"Well, your bed will never be empty." I countered. "But more than that. Your heart shall never be empty, nor your spirit as long as you permit me to stay with you."

"Right back at you Eric." She grinned, wrinkling her nose, "I'm not much of a poet. Though I do have some other skills,"

"Really? Do tell my Beauty."

"Do show and tell my lover." And she stood, offering me her hand, which I took up in an instant, intending to follow wherever she would lead me that night.

We have been together since, unmolested for the most part by supernatural or mortal. Are there more stories to tell? Of course, but here ends this volume, it is a good place, and my Beauty calls to me from our bed, which she makes warm for me. And I will not deny her.

Eric Northman

FIN


End file.
